


Cubic Zirconia

by arcum42



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Comedy, Dark, Family Drama, Gen, Homelessness, Hurt/Comfort, Orphans, Sad, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-03-23 08:32:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3761668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcum42/pseuds/arcum42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <br/>
    <a href="http://imgur.com/czS312X"></a>
    <br/>
    <img/>
    <br/>
  </p>
</div>Diamond Tiara has always enjoyed picking on the Cutie Mark Crusaders. But one day, she finds she's gone too far, and everything for her comes tumbling down. But help may come from the most unexpected of places...<p>Started before season four, and does not take season four canon into account.</p><p>This story is 100% Diamond Cutters Approved!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Push And A Shove

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic is actually a mirror of a fanfic I've posted at [fimfiction.net](http://www.fimfiction.net/story/96723/cubic-zirconia), and I'm gradually reposting them here. 
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
> I haven't really been satisfied with this chapter for a while and how it stacks up to the others writing-wise. So I sat down and did a rewrite. The same things happen in general, and you don't really have to read it if you read the old version, but everything should read better at this point. I also ran it past Luminary, though I made changes between his last view and putting it up, so I still might have minor changes creep in. 10/2/2014 (almost 10/3, really.)  
> It did gain more than 700 words in the rewrite, incidentally.
> 
> Old author note: I actually have a buffer of a few chapters on this one, but they are in varying states of readiness, so there still may be a bit of time between updates...

She really ought to have known better.

It had been the perfect setup, though. Scootaloo's scooter had been sitting in the road on top of a hill, while Scootaloo had climbed into the wagon hooked up to the back. She'd been chatting away with those two other blank flanks, totally oblivious to anything around her. And down the hill had been a mud puddle with their name on it.

So what else was there for her to do? It wasn't like they didn't totally deserve it for what had happened with Babs, anyway, and imagining the look on their faces as they sailed right into the mud was almost worth it in itself. So she pushed the wagon, sending it rolling down the path.

And then everything went wrong.

The wagon hadn't gone right down to the mud puddle, the way she had planned. Instead, it missed the puddle and hit some rocks beyond it at high speed. All three of them had flown out of the wagon on impact. It was the first time she'd  _ever_  seen the chicken fly, though, with the way she landed with a thud on the ground, her wings were useless as ever.

Sweetie Belle lay next to her, and Apple Bloom had been thrown onto a pile of rocks. A moment later, the wagon itself landed with a horrible cracking sound and a painful scream. It had crashed right into Apple Bloom, and her legs were right between the wagon and the rocks.

Diamond Tiara hesitantly walked closer to the site of the crash. She didn't really want to associate herself with it, given how badly wrong that had gone, but it had a certain horrid fascination. She had done this, and she just had to see the results.

While Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were lying there groaning, and were battered and bruised, they looked like they'd be fine. Apple Bloom was a different matter. She seemed to have passed out, and what she could see of her legs below the wagon didn't look good. She was pretty sure that there were bits sticking out that should still be inside them.

Miss Cheerilee was at the crash scene, checking on the three of them while talking to a nondescript stallion she didn't recognise. A few other colts and fillies milled around at the crash scene, looking on with a mixture of horror and curiosity.

The stallion nodded to Miss Cheerilee and galloped off, presumably going for help. Miss Cheerilee then said something to a blue unicorn filly with golden mane, who took over watching over the crusaders and making sure nopony else got too close.

Then, much to her shock, Miss Cheerilee headed straight in her direction.  She immediately launched into something between a lecture and a rant, and it was obvious Cheerilee blamed everything that had happened on her!

It just wasn't fair! She was acting really upset, too. The other foals in the area were all backing away from the two of them, and she was sure they'd spread gossip all over town about this. There was no way she was going to be living this down.

A team of ponies arrived with a cart as Cheerilee was still ranting. They got the wagon out of the way, very carefully moved Apple Bloom on to a stretcher and loaded her on the cart, then moved the other two crusaders on as well before taking off.

Diamond hadn't exactly been paying the best attention to what Miss Cheerilee had been saying, and not all of it was that intelligible anyway, but she did catch something about talking to her parents.

She would have thought Miss Cheerilee would have remembered that Mommy had died a few years ago. It was going to just be Daddy, and Daddy would straighten it all out for her. He always did.

Somehow, though, thinking about Apple Bloom as she'd been taken away on the stretcher, and the way you could see the bones in her leg where the wagon had hit, she wasn't so sure.

 

* * *

 

In her bedroom, Diamond sat on her bed, trying not to nibble on her hooves or chew on her mane, or any other of those disgusting nervous habits she still found herself doing from time to time. She hardly needed to have to have another hooficure or mane styling done, as she expected Daddy wouldn't be very sympathetic to that right now.

She'd been sent upstairs shortly after Cheerilee had arrived at the manor to discuss what had happened, and her and Daddy had been talking down there ever since. She was trying to relax, but every so often, scraps of what they were saying downstairs drifted up.

Daddy was angry. She had  _never_  heard him yelling this loudly before, even when a particularly big business deal fell through. He was so angry that she was actually starting to get pretty scared.

"So you actually  _saw_  my daughter shove the wagon before the accident?"

She winced. That did explain why Cheerilee had jumped on her back about what had happened so quickly. She hoped Daddy believed her over Miss Cheerilee. Still, she was probably grounded.

Diamond still couldn't make out most of the conversation that was going on down below. Usually when things did drift up, it was Daddy she heard, because he was so much louder than Miss Cheerilee. The things she heard him say did nothing to calm her down.

"Both of her hind legs have been fractured?"

Oh, that sounded bad, though it certainly matched with what she had seen. She didn't  _like_  Apple Bloom, but that didn't mean she wanted her legs broken. She might even have to be nice to her for a while, and try to find some way to make up for it.

"So you can show a consistent pattern of her maliciously targeting them in the past?"

That was hardly fair! She wasn't being malicious. Not really. There were just a lot of fun to mess with. It's not like she had really meant anything by it. They were really just asking for it, anyway.

The voices were gradually fading as the conversation dropped to a more reasonable volume, not that that helped her state of mind any. She remembered how he'd acted after Mommy had died. He'd been calm and collected, but you could see the fury burning somewhere behind his eyes.

Not to mention he'd been acting pretty odd for a while. She'd noticed him just staring off into the distance a few times, and not paying attention to what was going on around him. He'd been a little forgetful, and some of his decisions didn't always make the most sense to her, though there was probably something she was missing. And he'd been getting upset more easily than usual, though not like  _this_.

She was  _so_  dead. She really wished Mommy was here right now. She'd always managed to calm everypony down before things got too bad, and Mommy would have been there for her right now. She missed her.

Maybe she should stop picking on those blank flanks so much. Sure, they were really lame, and made easy targets, but things just kept getting worse and worse between them.

She supposed she could try to offer a truce, but Diamond doubted they would ever take it. There was just too much bad blood between them. They could never be friends, and she wasn't sure any of them would be able to leave each other alone.

The conference was probably over by now. She thought she'd heard the front door a little bit ago. Daddy was probably just letting her stew over everything that had happened before they talked about it, which was fine, since that gave him a chance to calm down, too.

There was a knock on the door. Opening it a crack, she saw the familiar face of Mister Greywithers, their faithful butler. As she started to greet him, it was obvious something was wrong. She'd been mostly raised by her mother and Grey, and most of the time, he was willing to let his stiff demeanor drop somewhat around her. Today, he was acting very formal, and very much the part of the prim, proper butler.

"The master has requested your presence in the study, ma'am," he said stiffly.

Oh, this was bad. For him to act this formal with her, something he was really uncomfortable about had to be going on.

"Thank you, Grey," she said. "I'll be down directly."

Okay, she was walking into a tempest. How should she approach this? Should she just deny everything? Would bursting into tears and saying she was sorry help? Maybe she should just meekly submit to everything he said?

Not coming to a firm conclusion, she decided she'd better just play it by ear. Slipping out of her room, she easily caught up with Greywithers.

"So how mad is he, Grey?" she asked him softly.

"I'm sure it isn't my place to say, ma'am," he said, avoiding looking in her direction.

 _Really mad_ , she interpreted.  _Really really mad_.

She ought to be fine. Daddy had always stood by her before, and this shouldn't be an exception, even if he  _was_  mad. So why was she shaking as she walked down the hall?

Arriving at her father's study, the elderly butler held the door for her, and followed her inside.

Daddy was sitting behind his desk in the study, putting the final touches on some paperwork in front of her. Hearing the door open, he looked up and glared in her direction with such intensity that she found herself looking away uncomfortably. He stood up, and pushed the chair back.

"Thank you, Greywithers. Leave us for a few minutes, but stay nearby, as I'll be needing you afterwards."

Mister Greywithers nodded and left the room, closing the door afterwards, leaving her alone at the mercy of her father. She'd have rather been anywhere else.

"Sit," he told her curtly, though Daddy didn't sit back down himself.

Diamond obediently took a seat, heart racing, as he paced back and forth, agitated.

"Diamond Tiara. To say I am disappointed in you is a huge understatement, but for the moment it will have to do. As a direct result of your actions,  _three_  of your classmates are in the hospital, and one is seriously injured. What were you thinking?"

Under his glare, she could hardly help herself, and started stammering out excuses. "It wasn't me! Miss Cheerilee—"

"Miss Cheerilee saw you push the wagon with her own eyes, and has several witnesses to back her. Care to revise that?"

"It was an accident! I didn't mean it!" That was almost true, at least.

"According to all reports, you grinned, and then shoved all your weight against the wagon. That is not an accident, but a deliberate act. I didn't ask you for excuses. I simply want to know this.  _Why_  did you do it?"

"I thought it'd be funny!" she finally confessed in desperation.

"You… thought… it… would… be… funny." He rubbed his eyes wearily for a moment, and then continued. "A filly is currently lying in the hospital with two broken hind legs. She may be limping for the rest of her life. She might not walk at all. Is that funny?"

"No," she mumbled.

"I can't hear you.  _Is that funny?_ "

"No!"

"Tell me, what business gave Rich Enterprises its start? And, in fact, is still our most major supplier and directly responsible for our success?"

"Um, Sweet Apple Acres?"

"And who runs Sweet Apple Acres?"

"Granny Smith?" she guessed.

"She used to. These days, she passed on all the business aspects to Applejack and Big Macintosh, as you would know if you payed any attention to my business dealings. Now, you have been the heir to my business. Who do you think  _they_  will be passing the farm on to when they get older?"

With all the stress, Diamond's mind was drawing a major blank. Business wasn't her strongest suit anyway.

He huffed. "Let me give you a little hint. You have been tormenting her for years, and she is now lying in a hospital, both leg broken, which I may add is also your doing. I am covering her hospital bills personally, but I wouldn't be surprised if she wants as little as possible to do with Rich Enterprises, both now and in the future. All due to you."

Diamond looked down and closed her eyes. She'd never really thought about it that way before. Not only had she hurt Apple Bloom, she was hurting his business, and worse, had disappointed Daddy. He still wasn't done, though.

"You have paid no attention to the details of how my business is run, and your schoolwork shows you have no aptitude for it. You spend all of your time antagonizing everypony around you, and now you are even putting them in danger. Your mother spoiled you rotten."

He stopped his pacing and stood directly in front of her.

"She did it with my help, sadly." He shook his head. "And you cry crocodile tears any time you think you aren't going to get your way."

Tears were, in fact, streaming down her face, but this time there was nothing fake about them. Hearing her father tear her down like that had hurt, and he was probably right. She opened her eyes back up when she felt him unceremoniously yank the tiara off her head.

"You should be paying attention to the world around you. Instead, you spend all your time admiring  _this_!"

He flung the tiara to the ground, and stomped on it angrily several times. There was a terrible crash of hooves on metal, and it shattered into pieces, diamonds flying loose from the twisted, broken metal. Diamond stood there in shock, looking down at it. She'd had that tiara for as long as she could remember.

"That's all over now. You certainly can't handle the business, so I'm making my second cousin heir to Rich Enterprise. We may not see eye to eye, and she may not have a great head for the business, but she'll certainly do better than you ever could."

Still reeling from the destruction of her precious tiara, it took a moment for this to sink in.

_I'm not my father's heir any more?_

He eyes grew wide. It was like her worst nightmares, all wrapped together and coming to life at once. "Wait! Y-you c-can't—"

"I can, and I am," he said, stomping one hoof on the ground. A piece of her broken tiara clattered next to it. "Matters are clearly beyond the point of fixing. What's more, I am formally disowning you. I simply cannot tolerate your behavior any more."

_What?_

"Greywithers?"

He popped in the room so quickly that Diamond had to wonder if he had been listening in. Filthy Rich turned to him.

"Please escort Miss Diamond Tiara off the premises. As of today, she is no longer welcome here."

"Sir?" he said, in a questioning tone.

"You heard me," he said sternly. "She has failed me for the last time. As far as I am concerned, she is no daughter of mine. Get her out of my sight. She is not to be allowed anywhere in the manor."

Her brain starting to kick back into gear, Diamond protested. "Daddy, no! I can change! I can do better, I promise!"

She ran up to him, heedless of the broken metal and precious gems scattered on the floor, and tried to put her forearms around him in a hug, desperate to do something, anything to get him to reconsider. Diamond found herself so abruptly shoved back that she toppled over backwards, and had to pick herself back up.

"I've already made up my mind," he said coldly, one eye giving a twitch. "This has gone on for far too long."

"B-but where can I go? What can I do?"

He turned away. "Frankly, that is no longer my concern. Greywithers!"

At that, the butler gently but firmly escorted her out of the mansion, picking her up delicately when she dug her heels in and refused to move.

"Grey!" she pleaded. "You've known me your whole life! You can't let this happen!"

"I  _am_  sorry, Miss Tiara," he said. "But my loyalty is first and foremost to Mister Rich, as the head of the Rich family. I  _will_  talk to him about this, but until I have permission, I cannot allow you to come back."

"I—"  she started to say, and then choked up. She just didn't know what she could say.

"I'll do what I can. That is all I can promise you," he said, and then closed the door. She could hear the clicking of locks and bolts being set in place.

Diamond just stood there afterwards, paralysed and afraid. What could she do now?


	2. Finding Her Place

Standing in the cold night air, Diamond Tiara shivered.

Daddy wasn't coming back for her. She'd fully expected him to come out after a few minutes and take it back, tell her it had been a bad joke, or a test or something. But the minutes had turned to hours while she just stood there, feeling totally numb after what had just happened.

But it was cold now, and getting dark. Daddy hadn't changed his mind. Maybe he would tomorrow, but she needed to find someplace to find the night. She couldn't stay here.

There was one place that she could try going. She didn't have many friends. Well, thinking about it, she only had one friend. She'd never needed more. But Silver Spoon didn't live that far away, and she had stayed overnight there before.

Of course, those sleepovers had been planned in advance, but hopefully that wouldn't be a problem. They could have a slumber party, and take her mind off of what had just happened. She really didn't want to think about it right now.        

She wouldn't be able to stay over there too long, but maybe daddy would have changed his mind by the morning. And if nothing else, maybe she'd have a better idea of what to do after a good nights rest.

She walked down the winding path that led to Silvy's home. It didn't take long to get there. The Silvers and the Riches had been friends for ages, and had settled down in the same area when the town was founded.

Going to the front door of the manor, she rapped the large silver knocker several times sharply. After a moment passed, the door opened a crack, and the butler looked out. He'd never been particularly friendly to her, not like Grey was, but he was reliable, at least.

"Greensborough?" she asked politely. "Is Silvy in? I really need to see her right now."

"Miss Tiara," he said, disdain clear in his voice. "After events earlier today, it has been decided that you are a bad influence on Silver Spoon, and as such, you are no longer on the admittance list for this manor. Good day."

He closed the door in her face, nearly nicking the end of her muzzle in the process.

 _Why that!_ She'd never liked Greensborough! Forbidding her access!That no good- she needed to see Silver Spoon  _right now_! Diamond Tiara started hammering violently on the knocker, and the face of the now-annoyed butler appeared again.

"That can't be right! Do you know who I am? Let me in now!" she demanded.  _No one ever denied her!_

"I do indeed know who you are, Miss Tiara. You are a young lady who has been explicitly forbidden access to this manor by my masters. Now, _good day_."

He slammed the door shut and refused to open it again, no matter how much she banged on it.

_Well, let's try a more direct route. I'll circle around to her window. Silvy'll let me in, at least._

She walked around the manor until she could see Silver Spoons room, and tapped on the outside of her window. "Silvy!"

The window opened a crack. "Diamond? What are you doing out there?"

"That dumb butler of yours wouldn't let me in! I need your help. Daddy's really mad at me, and I need somewhere to stay the night."

"My parents are really mad, too," she said, sounding gloomy. "My mother was passing by when Apple Bloom was being taken to the hospital, and heard all about you having pushed her. They won't even let me talk to you, at least for the next week or two."

"Oh." Her ears drooped. "Maybe you could sneak me in for the night? Nopony'd have to know."

"They're being really strict about this, Diamond," she said regretfully. "If I'm caught anywhere near you, not only am I grounded and my allowance forfeit, they'll cut off my access to the family workshop. And you know how much that means to me."

And she did. Most ponies didn't realise that Silver Spoon was actually becoming a fairly skilled smith, taking after one of the family trades. Few things actually made her happier than when she was working on a new creation. And she'd always been pretty close to her parents anyways.

"I know," she said reluctantly. "But where  _can_  I go, then? I have to find someplace for the night, at least, 'till this blows over."

Silver Spoon appeared lost in thought for a minute. "Well, you know, I bet you could stay in those blank flanks' lame clubhouse. It's not like anypony would be there at night."

 _You know, that could work. For tonight, anyways._  

"Good idea. At least I wouldn't have to be outside, anyways. Thanks."

"Sure." Silver Spoon started to close the window.

"Um, Silvy, we're still good, aren't we?" she asked at the last moment, worried about losing her, too.

"I don't know, Diamond. I just don't know." She secured the window.

Diamond Tiara shook her head.  _What was happening? She couldn't even rely on Silver Spoon?_

Well, she'd go and spend the night at the rickety old treehouse. It seemed appropriate enough, anyways. Though she doubted it'd be that comfortable, sleeping on a hard wooden floor. She'd have to do something about that.

It was time for her to backtrack. She didn't have any of her things. Daddy really should have at least let her grab everything she owned.

Though, he really shouldn't have kicked her out. Or at least, if he was going to kick her out, he could have sent her to live with somepony else. She really didn't want to think about it, though. It just made her upset. Upset and angry.

Of course, she wasn't about to try coming through the front door. Grey would be really nice about it, but he wouldn't let her in. But after Silvy's bedroom, she had an idea. Approaching Rich manor, she circled around towards the back, and right toward the outside wall of her room.

Fortunately, it had a really large window that she could pull herself up into. After trying a few times and failing, she eventually forced the window open and fell inside, gaining a minor collection of scrapes and bruises along the way.

She breathed a sigh of relief once she was inside.  _Home sweet home._  She wondered if anypony would notice if she just crawled into bed and snuggled up under the covers and pretended it had all been a bad dream. Maybe she'd wake up and everything'd be ok.

Then the door opened, and Mister Greywithers stood in the doorway. Seeing her there, he raised one eyebrow.

 _Well, there goes that idea._  She turned to him.

"You don't see me here, Grey! You see nothing, understand?" she hissed in desperation.  _Couldn't she get a break?_

"Indeed. I can avoid seeing anypony in this room for around five or ten minutes, no longer. You did make a fair amount of noise on entering, and I will be required to investigate eventually, though."

"Thank you, Grey. At least that'll give me time to get my things."

"It's the least I can do for you," he said. "Though one more thought occurs to me."

He pulled a small pouch out of his uniform, poured a few coins into it, and tossed it to her. "It is, in fact, time for your weekly allowance, and while I suppose being disowned would stop it, I never received instructions to that effect. Spend it wisely."

Oh, that would help. She didn't like the idea of being on her own, but being on her own with no money was even worse.

"Thank you," she said again, sincerely. "Um, if I'm still not welcome here next week, do you think I can get my allowance then, too?"

"That will all depend on whether Mister Rich thinks about it, and instructs me otherwise," he told her. "Gather your things quickly. I'll try to make sure nopony comes by for a few minutes. Good luck, Miss Tiara."

He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Her allowance. Shiny, precious bits. Thank goodness. Diamond Tiara wished now that she'd actually tried to save her allowance from previous weeks. She'd have to be stingy with it this time, and not let it vanish like it usually did. She had no idea when she'd get more, though she'd check next week anyways.

For now, it'd make all the difference. But she'd better get going.

She pulled all her sheets, blankets, and comforter off her bed, and lay them in the middle of the floor. She tossed her pillows in the middle. Pulling the dresses out of her closet, she piled them on as well. Then she threw in her diary, her teddy bear, and a box with a few pieces of jewelry.

The last made her think of her tiara again, and a tear ran down her face. She'd always had that tiara. It was her name. It was her cutie mark. It was  _her_. And it was shattered. Of all the things daddy could have done, that was the worst. She'd rather he'd hit her.

Well, no time to stop and think about it. She thought she'd heard hoofsteps. Probably just Grey, but she'd better get out of there. She tossed on her saddlebags, not bothering to check the contents. Then she wrapped the blankets around everything, tied a big knot in it, and grabbed it in her muzzle.  _Oof. Heavy._

Diamond Tiara tossed her bundle out the window, then jumped out after it, landing in the shrubbery. Picking it up in her muzzle by the knot, she heaved it over her shoulder, and began laboriously trudging over to Sweet Apple Acres. Eventually the treehouse was in sight.

She had no idea what she was going to do tomorrow. She'd sleep on it. Maybe she'd even go to school if she woke up on time, since she had no alarm or anything. She hauled everything on up the ramp to the clubhouse, then tossed it just inside the entrance.

She was walking in after it when a voice called out from further inside.

"Hey!" somepony said angrily. "What are  _you_  doing in here?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still in the process of adding chapters that I already have posted elsewhere, so this may be updating rather more rapidly than it otherwise would for a while.
> 
> Original notes:  
> Well, here we go with the next chapter. Hope people like the direction I'm taking things, since, honestly, there are a lot of ways I could have gone with this. In fact, I rather hope I start seeing other similar fanfics, because there's a lot of places this premise could go.
> 
> And this chapter contains one paragraph that I'm very proud of writing. I'll be disappointed if no one mentions it.


	3. Détente

Startled, she looked inside. It was late at night. Nopony  _should_ have been in there!

But no, there she was, clamoring down from a cushion in one corner of the clubhouse with a frown on her face. The flightless wonder herself, Scootaloo. What in Equestria was she doing here tonight?

Well, it wasn't like she could find anywhere else to go at this point. She'd have to stick it out, Scootaloo or no Scootaloo. She strode right in the clubhouse, attempting to call up whatever section of her dignity hadn't been trampled on.

"What am _I_  doing here?" she said haughtily, with a flip of her mane. "I could ask  _you_  the same thing. Shouldn't you be back at  _home_ right now? Or doesn't anypony  _care_ where you are at night?"

Looking closer at Scootaloo, she noticed that she was bandaged up in several places. She looked away from the bandages guiltily, feeling somewhat responsible for them.

"Or maybe you should still be in the hospital, getting your side looked at?" she asked.

Scootaloo glanced down at her bandages and frowned. "This is nothing, no thanks to you. Nothing compared to a broken leg, anyways! Where do you get off just waltzing in here, especially after that?"

Taken back at the sheer venom in her voice, Diamond Tiara tried to make a recovery. "I wasn't-"

"You have some nerve!" Scootaloo continued on her rant, brushing aside anything Diamond Tiara had to say. "Have you even given a moment's thought to what Apple Bloom is going through right now? Do you even give a flying feather about anypony other than yourself?"

She hadn't stopped to think about it, actually, with everything else happening today. She normally didn't really think much about other ponies anyways, since it was really what happened to her that was important.

But something daddy had said earlier went through her mind. Apple Bloom was the heir to Sweet Apple Acres, just like she had been for Rich Enterprises. Suddenly she  _could_ picture herself in Apple Bloom's position. And she didn't like what she was seeing.

Diamond Tiara imagined herself, both hind legs broken, being wheeled from place to place in a wheelchair. She shuddered at the thought of not being able to walk on her own, and being totally reliant on other ponies for help. Nopony should have to deal with that. Not even  _Apple Bloom_.

Feeling shaken, she took a step back. "I-I d-didn't mean-"

"You didn't mean what?" Scootaloo said, not letting her finish her sentence. She pushed forward, making Diamond Tiara step back again involuntarily. "You didn't mean to break both Apple Bloom's hind legs? You were aiming for just one, perhaps?"

She wasn't sure she'd ever seen Scootaloo this worked up before. "It wasn't like that!"

"Then what was it like, then, huh?" she fired off, pushing Diamond back into the doorway. "You leave Apple Bloom crippled, and then you have the gall to show up here of all places, with that stupid-looking tiara of yours-"

She paused for breath, and finally took in Diamond Tiara's appearance.

"Wait a minute. Where  _is_  your tiara? And what's with all this," She gestured at the bundle by the door, "feathering junk you've brought with you? What the hay  _are_ you doing here?"

It had been a really long night. Diamond Tiara had had more stress tonight then in most of the rest of her life, save maybe when her mother died. A good argument might not have been foreign to her, but she usually leaned on Silver Spoon, and she wasn't here.

Diamond Tiara was about at her breaking point, and even without the other factors at work, her missing tiara and her memory of its destruction still felt like a gaping wound. Its mention might have been enough to set her off by itself.

But she just couldn't take any more tonight. Her legs suddenly gave way under her, and she collapsed on the spot, sobbing. These weren't a couple decorative tears and sniffles. She began absolutely crying her eyes out nonstop, paying no attention to Scootaloo whatsoever.

She knew Scootaloo was still there somewhere in front of her. She just didn't care any more. She'd had way too much thrown at her in one night, and was giving up. Everything else faded into the background for her, except herself and her misery.

"Oh, come on now," she heard a disgusted voice from in front of her. "This isn't fair. You're the bully here. You aren't supposed to break down crying."

 _Then what was she supposed to do?_ She might have been mean and a bully before, but she'd been  _strong_.  _Tough_. Like a  _diamond_. But she didn't feel that way now.

"Don't think I'll let you off for what you did to Apple Bloom just because of this. It was unforgivable!"

Now she just felt fragile. Broken. Like her tiara. Shattered.

A sigh came from in front of her. "I  _cannot_ believe I'm going to do this."

Diamond Tiara suddenly felt two forelegs wrap themselves around her and squeeze her in a big hug. She didn't care who it was. She was beyond that point. She just accepted the warm embrace and sobbed into the chest of the flustered filly in front of her.

She felt one foreleg gently stroking at her mane, and the other awkwardly patting her on the back. She felt as though something stopped up had been released inside of her.

"There, there," Scootaloo murmured. "It'll be alright. Now quit your crying so I can go back to yelling at you."

At this, she let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "I- I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" she asked. "What about, crying?"

She was too drained for anything but honesty. "'bout A-Apple Bloom. D'n't m-mean to hurt her."

"Yeah?" she said, rubbing Diamond Tiara's back in circles. "Well, you did hurt her. She'll probably be out of the hospital in a couple days, but she's going to be in a wheelchair for months. Maybe longer. I spent most of my day sitting next to her, you know."

She hurt everypony. She hurt. "W-Wish there was s-somet'ng I could do to m-make it up to her."

Scootaloo just kept rubbing her back in circles, which was doing a lot to help her calm down. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine her mother was there for her. But of course she wasn't.

"I'm not really sure you can make it up to her," Scootaloo said. "Though, you know she'll be in a wheelchair when she gets out, and is going to need a lot of help getting around. You were good at pushing her before..."

This did actually get a laugh from her, feeble as it might have been. "I suppose I shouldn't stop now. Though I'm not sure Apple Bloom would trust me with that."

"Well, I'd be there, too. And I'll kill you if you do anything like that again, and Apple Bloom knows it."

Diamond Tiara shivered at that statement. She really didn't want to cross Scootaloo right now.

Scootaloo stopped rubbing. "Anyways, think you can cope now?"

She wasn't sure she would ever be able to cope again. But she nodded anyways.

Getting out of each other's embrace was even more awkward than the embrace itself, especially since a part of Diamond Tiara really didn't want to let go. Afterwards, she felt very vulnerable. It felt like part of the armor she normally wore to protect herself from the outside world was suddenly missing.

Another part of her felt totally offended by the situation. Had she really needed to be comforted by  _Scootaloo_ , total loser and blank flank?

_But then, I'm a total loser now, too. No home, no family connections, hardly a bit to my name. It's pathetic._

And she was actually warming up to Scootaloo despite it all.  _Alright, Diamond Tiara, pull yourself together. Enough self pity, enough being nice to blank flanks._

"Don't go thinking this means I like you or anything," she stated.

"Of course not." Scootaloo frowned. "You know, you're lucky I'm nice."

Diamond blinked as Scootaloo said this, apparently without irony.

"Right. With all that shouting and all."  _Who did she think she was kidding?_

"No, seriously," Scootaloo stated. "Things could have gone a lot worse for you with somepony else here."

"What do you mean?"  _How could things possibly have gone any worse?_

"Well, you walked straight onto  _my_  turf and attempted to lay claim to it," Scootaloo explained. " _And_  you had previously injured one of my friends. Breakdown or not, by rights I should have beaten you up and tossed you right out on your flank, followed by your stuff, or worse. I'm still not sure I shouldn't do the latter."

"What? You couldn't just do that!" Nopony'd dare touch her, would they?

"Things may be different up on your manor. You might call for the servants to have me removed, or discuss matters over tea and crumpets. But this is the real world we're dealing with. Not the elite circles you are used to."

"B-but- My father-" she stammered out, earlier events quite going out of her head.

"Well, as far as your father goes, either he doesn't know you are here, in which case he doesn't matter, or he  _does_  know, in which case you are _really_  in trouble. In either case, he isn't here, and this isn't a schoolyard, so you can't just call over Miss Cheerilee."

Diamond Tiara's mind whirled as she tried to comprehend what she had gotten herself into.

"In any case, like I said, you're lucky I'm nice," Scootaloo said. "Now, why are you here?"

Well, the only reply she could think of that might actually get her somewhere was also the truth. "I didn't think anypony'd be here, and I needed someplace to sleep tonight."

"Well, I  _am_  here," Scootaloo stated. "So, why should I let you spend the night?"

She actually still had a possibility of staying here? Why  _would_  Scootaloo be willing to let her sleep here?

"Um, because you're nice?" she ventured.

"Nice is why I'm even considering it. Why should I do it, though?" Scootaloo asked.

Well, she hated to do it, but if daddy had taught her one thing, it was that money takes care of most problems. She just didn't have much at the moment. But if it was the difference between having somewhere to sleep and not...

"I suppose could offer you a few bits to stay here." she said, regretfully.

"Well, if you're going to offer," Scootaloo said, "five bits for the night?"

She needed to save her money more than  _that_. "Five bits for the  _week_."

Scootaloo put one foreleg to her forehead and groaned.

"The week, huh?" She said. "If we're talking  _that_  long, I really need to know what's going on, and we'll need to lay down some ground rules."

Oh, she really didn't want this getting all over the school, and this was Scootaloo, who had all the reason to want to spread about her misfortune.

"Pinkie promise not to tell anypony?" she said meekly.

"You really don't understand the situation you're in, do you?" Scootaloo sighed. "Things have happened tonight that neither of us want to talk about. I know you understand blackmail. This is that type of thing, only it goes both ways. But we can exchange your silly promises if you want."

They did so, and she felt much better, knowing that if either of them talked, they'd be faced with a wrathful Pinkie Pie.

"After Miss Cheerilee talked to daddy, we had a  _big_  fight about what happened with Apple Bloom."

"Good," Scootaloo said. "So what happened, then? You got upset about it, and ran away from home afterwards? If there are going to be search parties looking for you, I'd really prefer you slept somewhere else."

"No, nopony's going to be looking for me." It was her turn to sigh.

"Then what happened?"

"He started yelling at me, and s-smashed my t-tiara, then kicked me out," she said, feeling shaky again even thinking about it.

"Wow, sounds like he  _was_  angry. If he's cooled down and had time to think, he might already be looking for you, though."

"No, he said he was disowning me, had some paperwork there, and told Grey not to let me back in. I think he meant it."

"Ponyfeathers," Scootaloo swore. "Why  _am_  I the nice one, anyways? Alright, you can stay here for the moment, but you'll need to understand the ground rules, though."

She was going to be able to get some sleep at some point. Perfect.

"What rules?" she asked.

"Well, main one is this is  _my_  place, or ours when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are here. So pretty much anything the three of us says goes without question, with my decision being the final one."

"Isn't this actually Applejack's?" she asked. It was on Sweet Apple Acres, after all.

"Sorta, though most of it was made by Apple Bloom at this point. But if Applejack found out we were sleeping here, we'd have more problems than arguing over rules."

"I suppose so." Not to mention she'd be upset about her sister. And she was business partners with daddy, so if Applejack found out she was here, she'd probably kick Diamond Tiara right off the property, too.

"If you want to use anything in the clubhouse, ask first," Scootaloo said. "And you'll be expected to help keep things clean around here."

"You want me to be your  _maid_?"

Scootaloo closed her eyes. "No. But we don't have maids here. So you'll be expected to clean up any messes you make, just like anypony else. I am  _so_ not cleaning up after you."

"Whatever," she said tiredly. Something occurred to her that she hadn't asked before. "Why exactly are you living here, anyways?"

"That's personal, and is my business, not yours," Scootaloo said. "It's already really late, and we'll be pretty tired as it is at school tomorrow. Lets just get to sleep."

School. Oh, she didn't even want to think about that. Sleep sounded good, though.

"Where do I sleep, then?" she asked.

Scootaloo pointed to another corner of the clubhouse, which, indeed, had another cushion. "You can sleep over there. Do you need any of that stuff you brought in tonight?"

"Just a minute." She grabbed a blanket and a pillow. After a moment, she decided to grab her teddy bear as well. Scootaloo took the bundle and shoved it through a trapdoor in the ceiling, presumably leading to a storage area.  

Afterwards, she held out her hoof and waited. Diamond Tiara puzzled over this for a moment, then sighed and hoofed over five bits from her bag. Scootaloo made them vanish, then climbed back on the cushion she'd been on earlier.

Diamond Tiara settled down on her own cushion. She wrapped herself in a blanket, snuggled up to her teddy bear, and tried to forget where she was and get some sleep. It wasn't easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Old notes:  
> Man, this was a difficult chapter. This is actually the fourth take and several revisions later, and it's mainly Scootaloo that was giving me issues, oddly. This is a very different Scootaloo then in Just Winging It or in the Making Friends universe. Not absolutely sure I've ironed out everything, but I'm at a point where the main thing that'd help is other people reading it.
> 
> And no, Diamond Tiara doesn't have a very realistic world view. She'll learn.
> 
> Thanks to the last line, the song "It Don't Come Easy" is now stuck in my head. Seems appropriate enough, too.


	4. Morning Is Broken

Diamond Tiara's first thoughts were that somepony must have left her curtains open. She heard a noise and groggily swung her hoof towards her alarm. It was Thursday, so Grey should be on his way soon with cinnamon buns and a cup of rose tea for breakfast.

Her hoof swung freely over the edge of her cushion and down to the ground. Unbalanced, she toppled to the floor in a tangle of blankets. She then heard the noise once again, and this time, she realised that it was not her alarm after all, but a rooster.  _How does one turn off a rooster?_

Opening up her eyes, she realised that she wasn't in her room, after all. There were pink curtains hanging on the window, but that was where the similarity ended. The floor was hard wood, there was a map hanging on one wall, and looking around, her tiara was nowhere to be found.

And then it hit her. Of course her tiara was nowhere to be found. It was broken. Daddy had broken it. Daddy had broken it and thrown her out. _Stupid._ He had no  _right_. He had no  _right_ to do that to  _her!_

She lashed out at the cushion next to her, and started pummelling it in fury, picturing Daddy's face there.

_This is for my tiara!_ ***Wham!*** _This is for abandoning me!_ ***Wham!*** _This is for not being there when I need you!_ ***Wham!*** _This is for not loving-_

She squeezed her eyes closed and hugged the cushion to her face, choking down a sob. Then she tossed it back down to the ground in irritation and gave it a few good whacks, embarrassed at her weakness.

"Morning workout?" a voice said wryly. She flushed, suddenly remembering that she wasn't the only one in the clubhouse. Whirling around, she saw Scootaloo standing in another corner. She appeared to be tying down a bandage on her side.  _How long had she been watching?_

"What's it to you?" she snapped angrily, and then regretted it. She might not like Scootaloo, but she needed her help right now. She shouldn't try to antagonise her.

"Oh, nothing, I suppose." Scootaloo finished adjusting one last bandage. "I was actually just about to start my own workout. It's sort of pegasus only, though."

With that, she dropped to the floor and started doing wing pushups. Diamond Tiara watched in fascination. She'd never thought those small wings were that strong. She didn't really get to see anypony working out too much, let alone exercising their wings.

It was actually sort of impressive how she just cranked them out, one after another. Diamond Tiara found herself involuntarily walking closer as she watched.

"You do all that every morning?" she asked, curious in spite of herself.

"Yeah," Scootaloo said, stopping her pushups and stretching. "My wings are pretty tiny, so I've been working on my wing muscle strength."

Well, she supposed that was reasonable. Now that Scootaloo had stopped moving,but still had her wings out, something caught her attention. In an area her wings normally covered, she had an old-looking scab on her side, and her fur was kinda thin in a line on either side of it.

Diamond Tiara would never have noticed if she hadn't been this close and Scootaloo hadn't been exercising.  _What could possibly have caused that?_

"What's that on your side?" she asked.

Scootaloo looked up. "Hmm?"

"That spot there?" she said, pointing.

Scootaloo looked at her side and frowned. "I told you, that's personal."

Then she went back to her pushups, ignoring Diamond Tiara completely.

 _But she didn't say that was personal. She said the reason she was living here was._ Diamond Tiara shook her head.  _Whatever. There were more important matters right now._

"What's for breakfast?" she asked the exercising pegasus.

"I... just said-" Scootaloo managed between pushups. "that you... could sleep here. I didn't... say anything about  _breakfast_."

She finished her exercises and lay there panting. Diamond Tiara frowned.

"But I just left last night. How am I supposed to have anything here for breakfast?" she said, a high whiny tone entering her voice.

"We're ponies," Scootaloo said simply. "You do realise you can eat grass, right?"

"Well yes, but that's so uncouth, undignified, so-"

"Impractical? You  _will_ find yourself eating grass on occasion, but if it was the only thing you were eating, you'd have to graze all day." Scootaloo gestured outside the clubhouse window. "Take a look outside. What do you see?"

Diamond Tiara glanced out. "Trees."

Scootaloo sighed. "Could you be a  _little_ more specific than that?"

"Apple trees?"

"Right," Scootaloo said. "So what do you think is for breakfast?"

Diamond Tiara thought for a moment. "Apples?"

"Got it. Not much to it, but it's better than nothing."

A potential problem occurred to her. "Wouldn't Applejack notice apples around here were going missing?"

"Of course she does. But Applejack gave this treehouse to us knowing that it was in the middle of an orchard. She expected that we'd eat  _some_ of them. And Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle haven't been, so I can eat them without anypony noticing."

"So that's all you eat for breakfast? Raw apples?"

"Well, no, sometimes Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stop by, and we go out." She looked out the window herself. "In fact, it looks like she's on her way now."

"Wait, Sweetie Belle's coming over, like, right now? While I'm still in the clubhouse?"

Scootaloo folded back up her wings, and as she did so, Diamond Tiara noticed a few spots that were either bare or had really short feathers. _Funny. They're all in line with that old scab I noticed._

She vaguely wondered why she'd never spotted them before. Then Scootaloo started preening her feathers, rearranging them to cover up the patches, and it became kinda obvious.

However, Diamond Tiara had other concerns at the moment. "If she comes over right  _now_ , I'll be discovered here!"

Scootaloo adjusted another feather carefully. "Well, you  _could_ hide in the clubhouse till she's gone, or rather,  _we're_  gone. But this'll hardly be the last time she comes over. You'd be better off just letting Sweetie Belle know you're staying here."

"Until  _we're_  gone?" she asked. She wasn't totally sure she'd be able to find her way to school in time by herself.

"Well, we're probably headed out for breakfast, so... yeah," Scootaloo said.

She sighed. Her whole ordered world of  _how things should be_  was in ruins anyways. The way things  _should_ go, she'd have a nice, sophisticated breakfast, be groomed, make sure she looked her best and get ready for the new day. Silvy would meet with her, and they'd talk about what they were going to do for the day, and maybe make fun of the blank flanks, if she ran into them.

Now she was here with one of the blank flanks, she hadn't even had breakfast, probably had horrid bed mane and bed fur, another was on the way, and Silvy probably wasn't even going to talk to her today. That hurt, even knowing why.

And Sweetie Belle would be here any minute.

It wasn't that she really hated Sweetie Belle. She seemed nice, after all. But she had so much potential, and she wasted it. She could have been one of  _them_. She was sisters with one of the best, most sophisticated fashionistas in Ponyville.

Rarity understood the importance of always looking good, going to the spa, and undoubtedly knew what a proper, high-class breakfast should look like. She had even made a large number of Diamond's dresses, though some were Canterlot high fashion.

But Sweetie Belle had none of that. She ran around wreaking havoc with the Crusaders, going to the pond and catching frogs, and unerringly getting every single bit of tree sap in the area on her. Anytime she tried to do anything with any amount of grace, it ended in disaster.

She could probably force herself to get along with Sweetie Belle for now. She wasn't  _that_  bad. She did so want her breakfast. And she didn't think she'd done anything  _really_  bad to her personally.

She looked out the window and frowned as another time she'd looked out of this window occurred to her. It'd been back when Babs had been here. Babs had really known how to have a good time. It was a shame things had ended between them the way they did.

But they'd kicked the Crusaders out of this very clubhouse, and she remembered seeing Sweetie Belle crying through the window as they left. Bother.  _Why do there suddenly have to be consequences to everything now?_ she thought irritably.  _There never were before._

"Do you think Sweetie Belle would still be upset about the time we took over your clubhouse?" she asked tentatively.

Scootaloo glared at her. "We're  _all_  still upset about that. But Sweetie Belle will keep a secret if I ask her to."

Well, she supposed she'd better get down and face her. Sweetie Belle would figure it out eventually, anyways. Besides, maybe if she told all three of them how sorry she was, Daddy'd take her back in.

"Alright, I guess I'd better talk to her," she said wearily, and walked slowly to the door, only to find Scootaloo blocking it.

"Hang on, let me talk to her first. If you just walk out of the clubhouse, she might get the wrong idea."

"Morning, Scootaloo!" a voice called from down below. "You up?"

"I'll be right down, Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo called out, then headed downstairs, out of Diamond's sight.

Diamond Tiara stood there, nervously, a knot in her stomach, as bits of what was being said drifted up to her. She felt as though everything was about to go wrong somehow, and much more tense than she really should be.

After a moment, she placed the reason she was feeling this way. This was  _just_  the way things been before Daddy had kicked her out.

Well, she doubted things could go that badly, at least. She settled down to listen.

"Morning! How are you -  ***gack*** " Scootaloo's voice was suddenly cut off with a whumping sound.

"Scootaloo!" A second voice called out enthusiastically. It sounded like somepony was either being tackled in a big hug down there, or possibly being attacked. It was hard to tell. Most likely the former, though.

"Sweetie Belle... I know... you're happy to... see me, but... not on my side..." Scootaloo's voice came up faintly to her.

_Ouch. That must have hurt._

"I'm sorry!" she heard Sweetie Belle say. "I just thought after yesterday that you'd really need a hug, and I needed a hug, and-"

"That's fine, but gently, alright?" Scootaloo said resignedly.

"Ok," Sweetie Belle said. "You missed a spot on your left wing, by the way. I thought those had all come back in?"

"Some of them have, but that was just a partial molt."

_Partial molt? What exactly is a molt? Some pegasus thing?_

"Shouldn't you have had a full one by now, though?" Sweetie Belle said, sounding puzzled.

"It's running late, ok?" Scootaloo rebutted, annoyed. "Can we drop it?"

"Right," Sweetie Belle said. "So, did you want to get some breakfast over at Sugarcube Corner? My treat."

"That'll be great!" Scootaloo exclaimed, then got ahold of herself. "But something kinda happened tonight. Can you keep quiet about this?"

"You know I can. What's wrong, Scoot?"

She couldn't really hear Scootaloo's reply. She figured Scootaloo had whispered it. She heard the response loud and clear, though.

"You slept with  _Diamond Tiara_?!"

 _Alright, that does it._  She charged through the door and down the ramp, working up a head of steam.

"I did  _not_  sleep with-" she paused and took in the scene. Sweetie Belle was looking at her, wide-eyed, while Scootaloo cradled her own head in her forelegs.

"-Scootaloo," she finished weakly. "Morning?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Old Notes:  
> This one certainly gave me trouble. I'm still not totally sure I've got it right, but I may as well publish and see how it goes over, since it's been a while.  
> I actually cheated a bit by ending the chapter right before the part that was giving me the most trouble. Sweetie Belle shouldn't give me issues, but her interaction with Diamond Tiara has for some reason.
> 
> And Filthy Rich shows up a lot in this fanfic for only being in one scene, doesn't he?


	5. Water Flowing Underground

Diamond Tiara stared at Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo in confusion. She still wasn't totally sure what was going on between the two of them, with all the fuss about her sleeping with Scootaloo and all that hugging they were doing. She'd always thought hugging was a little undignified. She couldn't  _think_  of the last time she'd been hugged, before last night, that was.

Sweetie Belle seemed equally confused, looking back and forth between the two of them before finally speaking.

"Um, what were you doing in the clubhouse?" Not giving Diamond Tiara a chance to reply, Sweetie Belle turned back to Scootaloo. "Scoots, what's going on?"

Scootaloo looked at Diamond Tiara sheepishly. "Given I messed up my first try, maybe you should tell her?"

"But you said  _you_  should tell Sweetie Belle," Diamond replied.

"O _ne_  of you should tell me," Sweetie Belle huffed. She pointed at Diamond Tiara. " _You_  are the one who went from what  _you did_  yesterday to being in our clubhouse this morning. Why don't  _you_  explain what's going on?  _Starting_  with your breaking Apple Bloom's legs."

_Here goes nothing._  Diamond Tiara took a deep breath.

"Well, I didn't  _exactly_  mean to break her legs. There was a mud puddle nearby, and I totally thought you'd all end up in it. That would have been funny."

Scootaloo glared at her when she said that for some reason.  _But it would have been. They thought it was funny when me and Silver Spoon were the ones in the mud, didn't they?_

"But then Apple Bloom ended up in the hospital, and that was even funnier, right?"

"No, that wasn't funny at all! I totally wouldn't have done it if I'd known what was going to happen." Which was quite true. If she'd had any idea it'd lead to Daddy kicking her out and her having nowhere to live, she certainly wouldn't have done it. "I'm sorry."

_There. She'd said it_.

"Uh huh." Sweetie Belle crossed her forelegs and frowned. "And the clubhouse?"

"Well, Daddy was really angry at me afterwards," she said, a lump forming in her throat as she went back over what had happened once again.

"So he made you come down to the clubhouse to apologise?" Sweetie Belle guessed. "I'm, um, kinda pretty upset with you still. I'm not ready to accept an apology yet."

_Sweetie Belle wasn't going to accept her apology? Was that allowed?_

"No, he was  _really_ really angry. Smashing my tiara to pieces and kicking me out of the house angry." She shuddered, and blinked.  _She wasn't going to start crying again. Not now_.

Sweetie Belle blinked. "Your tiara isn't still upstairs?"

Scootaloo spoke up. "No, she didn't have it on her last night."

"Oh," Sweetie Belle said softly, and was quiet for a few minutes before picking back up where she left off.

"Ok, so if you needed someplace to stay last night, I can see how you ended up here, I guess. But I'm still not sure why Scoots let you stay." She turned to Scootaloo quizzically. "Weren't you talking about dunking her in boiling oil yesterday?"

_She'd been talking about what?_

"I wasn't talking about dunking Diamond Tiara in boiling oil yesterday," Scootaloo replied.

_Oh. Good._

"I thought-" Sweetie Belle said, confused.

"No, that was Apple Bloom. I wanted to draw and quarter her!" she said enthusiastically.

_Not helping, Scootaloo, not helping._

"Oh, that's right!" Sweetie Belle said.

"Wait, you were talking about  _killing_  me?" Diamond Tiara screeched.

"Well, yeah," Scootaloo said. "It's boring sitting around a hospital bed, and we needed  _something_  to do."

Hmm. If Scootaloo got bandaged up yesterday, and was sitting around with Apple Bloom, wouldn't they have tried to notify her parents?

"If you were in the hospital yesterday, did they, like, try to get in touch with your family or anything?"

"They  _did_  ask me about it a couple of times," Scootaloo admitted. "Good thing they got distracted, and I wasn't badly hurt."

"You told her about your family?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"No, but if you're sleeping in a treehouse, some things are sorta obvious, you know?"

Scootaloo flicked one ear, idly dislodging a fly that had been bothering her.

"Right. So what happened last night?"

"I  _wanted_ a fight last night. I  _tried_  to get in one," Scootaloo said. "But I'm not going to hit somepony when they're down. She needed my help."

Diamond Tiara's ears pinned to the side of her head, thinking about her collapse last night. That had been so totally embarrassing. It would have been bad enough for anypony to see it, but for  _Scootaloo_  to see it-

And the way Scootaloo had reacted had been unexpected. It wasn't how she would have acted. But Scootaloo  _wouldn't hit somepony where they were down,_ and  _helped them when they needed help_. Diamond Tiara wasn't able to say the same, and somehow she felt a little smaller for it.

Then she realised that both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were looking at her. Had she missed something?

"Sorry, could you repeat that?" she said, hoping one of them had asked a question.

"So, were you going to go to Sugarcube Corner with us for breakfast?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Oh, right. She supposed she'd better, even if she wasn't sure her meager supply of bits was up to it.

"Sure, let me just get my things."

She ran up the ramp, grabbed hold of her saddlebags, and went back down. After the ransacking of her room last night, she wasn't sure of the contents, but her allowance would be there, at least.

She rejoined the others, and started rummaging through her bags.

"Looking for a comb or a hairbrush?" Sweetie Belle asked.

When she said this, Diamond Tiara came to a horrid realization. She started searching for either frantically. Her bedmane must be  _horrible_.

"Oh Celestia, my beautiful mane..." she moaned, as she searched. An awful suspicion dawned on her. Her set of combs and brushes was still sitting on top of her dresser by the mirror, weren't they?

Panicstruck at the thought of going to school with her mane sticking in all directions, she went up to Scootaloo and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Quick, I need to borrow your comb!" Diamond Tiara said, face to face with Scootaloo now. "It's an emergency!"

"You think  _I_  have a comb?" she replied, taken aback.

"Um," Sweetie Belle said hesitantly. "Diamond?"

"Oh, I'll be the laughingstock of the school!" Diamond Tiara groaned, continuing to paw through her bag.

Abruptly, a hairbrush and mirror passed right under her muzzle. Looking up, she realized Sweetie Belle was holding them out to her. She gratefully took both.

Checking out her reflection, she found she was right on the money about her appearance. She started detangling her mane and brushing it out. Her normal look wouldn't work, since she didn't have- there wasn't anything to hold it down. She just swept her mane back and let it fall loosely behind her for now.

It was different, but different might be good, and it wasn't like she had anything to tie it back with. She didn't even have a brush and mirror, since these weren't hers. She gave them back to Sweetie Belle after giving her mane one last stroke. She'd probably have to buy her own. No way were her bits going to last, at this rate.

"Thanks," she said sheepishly, now that she was no longer panicked. "At least I'll be, like, presentable today."

Sweetie Belle tilted her head one direction and peered at her. She put both forelegs in front of her, and looked between them, then dropped them to her sides, evidently satisfied with what she saw.

"That'll do," she said. "Um, I think this look might suit you better, actually."

Really? Sweetie Belle might be, well, Sweetie Belle, but she  _was_ Rarity's sister. This might not be all bad.

"So, Scoots, got everything ready for breakfast?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Oh, right, just a minute," she replied, and vanished up into the clubhouse.

Diamond Tiara turned to watch her, and was suddenly aware of the tip of a horn resting against her throat. She froze.

"You know, Scootaloo is my very best friend and for a long time was my only friend," Sweetie Belle said quietly. "And she's helping you now. Don't hurt her, alright?"

Diamond Tiara gulped, and would have nodded if she could have done so without injury.

"Right."

Sweetie Belle moved her horn away quickly enough that Diamond Tiara almost wondered if she'd imagined the whole thing. "Good."

Diamond Tiara just stood there in sheer shock for a minute afterwards. It was like having been threatened by a bunny rabbit. But one with very sharp teeth.

Scootaloo came cheerily down from the clubhouse, totally oblivious to the conversation that had just taken place. "Ready to go?"

"Ready!"

They started chattering along about their plans for the day far more cheerfully than Diamond Tiara ever thought the early morning would warrant. Well, they  _could_  be cheerful. Everything'd be alright for them. Except for Apple Bloom being missing, it was a normal day.

Well, maybe it would be for her, too. She would have a typical boring school day. She'd hang out with Silver Spoon, and when school was over, Daddy would pick her up. They'd go home, and everything would be the same as it ever was. She sighed, and was lost in blissful fantasy for a few minutes, then snapped out of it.

Things would never be the same. Silver Spoon couldn't hang out with her today. Her lovely tiara was broken. And even if Daddy picked her up, it wouldn't be the same. She wasn't sure she'd ever really trust him again, or that she'd feel secure about having someplace to live again.

Maybe it'd be a boring, non-eventful school day, at least. She wasn't really sure she had to go to school after what had happened, but it was the normal thing for somepony to do, and she needed normal right now.

Besides, Scootaloo went to school, and nopony was forcing her. There must be  _some_  reason to go.

Looking up, she noticed that they weren't that far from Sugarcube Corner. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were still chattering away. She paused, pulled out the bag all her bits were in, and started counting.

Noticing her falling behind, the other two stopped and walked over to her.

"What do you have that out for?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I was just trying to figure out how much I can afford for breakfast," she said, frowning.

Numbers had never been her strong suit, and she wasn't sure of the prices at Sugarcube Corner.

"Oh, well, I was going to pay for all three of us," Sweetie Belle said, then glanced in Diamond Tiara's direction.

"Unless you were planning on a really big breakfast or something, that is."

She was giving her threats of bodily harm  _and_  breakfast? Or was that threats of breakfast?

"You don't like me, but you're buying me breakfast?"

"Well, I may not like you, and I haven't forgiven you yet," Sweetie Belle said, looking her in the eye, "but like Scoots said, you need help right now."

Diamond Tiara flushed. She really hated having to rely on others  _charity_. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Daddy was supposed to take care of all that for her. He was supposed to take care of everything for her, not-

She cut off her train of thought. She was just going to get herself angry or upset, and she didn't need that right now.

"I don't-" she started to say, then it was Scootaloo's turn to grab her by the shoulders.

"Excuse us," Scootaloo told Sweetie Belle, and dragged Diamond aside with her.

"That bag's all the bits you have on you, right?" she asked.

Diamond Tiara nodded.

"Let me see it for a minute?" Scootaloo asked, extending a hoof.

Diamond Tiara gave her the bag, then immediately felt very dumb for doing so. What if she didn't give them back?

However, Scootaloo just poked around the bag for a moment, counting under her breath, then returned it.

"Well, you can last for a little bit on that, but you'll still really need to stretch it as far as it can go. Let Sweetie Belle buy you breakfast today."

"But I don't really want to be-"

"In her debt? I tried that. Not accepting anything unless I could pay them back somehow, running around doing a bunch of errands to earn money-"

"And?"

"I ended up starving  _and_  not getting any sleep 'till some friends knocked some sense into me. There are lots of friendly ponies around town that want to give you things. You accept them, they're happy, and you're happy. Don't try to drive yourself crazy doing everything yourself."

Diamond Tiara had to wonder, thinking like that, how Scootaloo  _hadn't_  ended up living with somepony else, but didn't feel it'd be a good idea to bring it up. What she was saying  _did_  make sense, even if she didn't like it.

"I guess I see what you mean."

Then something else struck her.

"Wait, why were you starving? Didn't you say we could just eat grass earlier?"

Scootaloo laughed. "Yeah, you can, but you have to eat a  _lot_  of it, and I was trying to do too many other things to get enough. Food  _or_  sleep isn't a great choice to have to make."

 

"Right, I suppose not."

"Anyways, make sure to keep that bag on you. Giving it to anypony else, even for a moment, is usually a bad idea."

She flushed even more, thinking about how stupid that had been. Though at least now she knew she could trust Scoots, er, Scootaloo with it.

"So let's get back to Sweetie Belle, and you can thank her for getting you breakfast."

The two of them walked back to where Sweetie Belle was waiting. Sweetie Belle looked up at them.

"Thanks," Diamond Tiara said reluctantly. "Breakfast would be great."

"Great!" she said. "Now let's get over there while we still have time!"

In a matter of a few minutes, they were at Sugarcube corner. Pinkie Pie came over as they sat down at a table together.

"Good morning, Scootaloo! Morning, Sweetie Belle!" Pinkie Pie's smile slipped a bit as she noticed her. "Diamond Tiara."

The three of them took a seat at one of the tables there, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle on one side, and Diamond Tiara on the other. Pinkie Pie turned to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's side of the table, ignoring that Diamond was there.

"What can I get you girls today?" she asked.

Well, she'd wanted to wait to see what they got first, anyways, she supposed.

Sweetie Belle spoke up. "I'd like a vanilla hayshake and an apple turnover."

"A chocolate hayshake, and a cinnamon roll sounds good!" Scootaloo cut in.

As Pinkie looked about ready to leave, she hurried with her order, following their lead on what to get.

"A strawberry hayshake, and a blueberry muffin, please," she asked, hoping she'd take it.

"Okie-dokie-lokie!" Pinkie glanced at Diamond Tiara briefly, then vanished to get their orders.

Looking away, she realised that both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were staring at her.

"What!?" she said grumpily. "Do I have something on my face?"

"No." Scootaloo looked away hastily, followed by Sweetie Belle. "It's just... When we come here with Apple Bloom, she usually gets a strawberry hayshake."

"So I like the same flavor hayshakes as Apple Bloom," she grumbled. "Big deal."

"It just feels weird," Sweetie Belle said.

"What seemed weird to me was the way Pinkie seemed to be totally trying to ignore me," Diamond Tiara said. "I wouldn't think that'd be good business."

"Well, she  _is_  good friends with Applejack and Apple Bloom," Sweetie Belle said. "Chances are that she already knows that Apple Bloom is in the hospital and that you were involved."

Pinkie Pie came back out and gave Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo their orders, and then begrudgingly put Diamond's order on the table, far enough away that she had to pull it over to where she was sitting.

"Yeah, I guess so." She sucked on the straw in her hayshake, depressed. At least it tasted like it should.

Conversation was pretty stilted, and was mostly between Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, leaving Diamond Tiara feeling like a third wheel. It didn't help that most of the comments that came to her mind were nasty, so she ended up not saying them.

It wasn't like she could talk to them like she did Silver Spoon, either. She had known Silver Spoon for years, and she was the closest friend Diamond Tiara had. Well, the only friend she had, actually. It hurt knowing Silvy was going to be avoiding her, but she understood why. Silvy's parents were everything to her. Just like hers had been.

She blinked angrily. She was not about to start crying in public. She tried to pay more attention to what Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were talking about, which was good, as Sweetie Belle's next question was addressed to her.

"So, about your staying at the clubhouse. Was that just for last night, or-"

"Sorry, Sweetie Belle, this wasn't a  _'I don't want to see you again tonight'_  type thing," Diamond Tiara told her.

"Are you sure? Because I've, um," she looked down, "kinda had that happen before."

"Daddy smashed my tiara in front of me and said he was disowning me!" Diamond Tiara said angrily. "Then he told me I wasn't allowed back. I don't think that's changing. "

"He actually disowned you?"

Diamond Tiara thought she heard a gasp from elsewhere in the building, but didn't pay it much attention as she continued.

"Yeah. I'll try to find someplace other than your clubhouse if I can, but I doubt Daddy's just going to, like, pick me up from school and pretend nothing's happened."

_But how I wish he would!_

"Don't worry about it," Scootaloo said. "There's nowhere else that even compares to the clubhouse in Ponyville if you need someplace to sleep and have nowhere to go. You can stay there as long as you need to."

_Why were these blank flanks being so nice to her when she'd done nothing but make their lives harder?_  

After they all finished their breakfasts, Diamond Tiara noticed a bill on the table. When had that gotten there? There was a paper bag by it, too, which she didn't remember any of them ordering.  _Wait, should they have been talking about all this in public?_

"Um, do you think Pinkie heard what we were talking about earlier?" she asked, trying to make it sound like an innocent question and not a pending disaster.

"Oh, probably," Scootaloo said. "She hears most of what happens in here. She considers anything she overhears private, though, so she won't tell anypony. I'm pretty sure she knows where I am living."

"Why is that?"

"Well, she's done things like given me extra things I didn't order, and not billing me for things. In fact-" She opened the bag, then, after taking a peek inside, slid it over. "Yep, blueberry muffin. I'd say that's yours. Lunch."

_She'd forgotten about lunch, hadn't she?_  Diamond Tiara tucked it in a saddlebag, remembering Scootaloo's words from earlier.

"We'd better get going," Sweetie Belle said. She counted out some bits, lay them on the table, and the three of them continued on the way to school.

_Well, at least I can forget about everything for a while and just concentrate on school_ , she thought, as they arrived.  _I hope Miss Cheerilee isn't still mad._

She slowly entered the schoolhouse, getting ready for a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [b]Old Notes:[/b]  
> Not totally sure that I shouldn't spend more time revising this chapter, but I've been sitting on this, revising it, rearranging things, and trying to get it to the end of the chapter long enough that I really want to get it out there. Hope people like it!
> 
> Edit: I've polished things a little, and added a few lines of dialogue to clear a potential issue up. Otherwise, it should be the same.


	6. Twist and Shout

Diamond Tiara had barely made it in on time, and she had gotten some odd looks on the looks on the way, with her new mane style and missing tiara. She did her best to pretend that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had  _just happened_  to enter at the same time as her, and they all went to their normal seats. Silver Spoon glanced at her from her seat, then immediately looked away.

That wasn't really any surprise after what had happened last night, but it still really really hurt to have her best friend pretending she wasn't there. Today certainly wasn't going to be easy for her. The more the room filled, the more everypony seemed to be focussing on Apple Bloom's empty desk, consciously or not. After a moment, she suddenly realized that she was staring at it herself, and turned to the front of the classroom.

Once everypony had taken a seat, Cheerilee got up from behind her desk and walked to the front of the classroom. She cleared her throat, and the noise of the classroom faded into silence.

"Good morning, class! Before we get started today, some of you may have noticed that Apple Bloom is not here today. Yesterday, she was hospitalized with both her hind legs broken after school." Diamond Tiara swore Cheerilee was looking right at her as she said that. "Barring complications, she should be out in a few days. I thought I'd pass a get well card around the classroom everypony could sign to cheer her up."

Cheerilee set the card on Twist's desk. Twist scribbled a message on it, drew a little picture of a peppermint stick by it, and passed it over to Silver Spoon. The class started talking again as the card was passed from desk to desk. Most of it was about Apple Bloom, making Diamond feel awkward. Worse, it had to be passed  _around_  Apple Bloom's empty desk, and when it was, it managed never to make it to her, either.

Snails finished signing the card, and held it up for Miss Cheerilee to pick up. Seeing this, Diamond raised one foreleg high in the air to catch her attention.

"Yes, Diamond Tiara?" Cheerilee asked.

"Miss Cheerilee, I haven't had a chance to sign the card yet!" she protested.

"Of course," she said, bringing it over. "I wouldn't want to forget you."

As Cheerilee set the card down on her desk, Diamond thought about what she should write.

_Alright, how should I sign this? I really need to make this up to Apple Bloom somehow. She's the one I really need to apologise to the most, if I'm ever going to have a chance to make things up with daddy._

After a moments thought, she decided simple was best. In the one free spot, she crammed in " **I'm sorry. Get better soon.** ", signed it, and pass the card back. Glancing at it, Miss Cheerilee nodded, and took the card back to her desk with her.

No longer occupied with the card, she noticed that Twist and Silver Spoon were talking enthusiastically, as if they'd been friends for a long time. Something inside Diamond Tiara burned. Had she really been replaced that easily?

Miss Cheerilee quieted the class down once more.

"Thank you, class. I'll be taking this card with me when I visit Apple Bloom tonight, and I'm sure she'll be very happy to see all your well wishes." She walked over to her desk. "Now, if you can all take your history books out and turn to page 216, let's begin our lesson."

_Her history book. Oh Celestia, did she even have her schoolbooks?_

 

Diamond Tiara started searching futilely through her bag for what was the second time this morning. She was pretty sure it wasn't gonna turn up, too. After all, it would have shown up when she was looking for her comb earlier. She'd probably just left it in her room last night, in which case, it might as well be lost forever.

"Diamond Tiara?" Miss Cheerilee called out. "Do you have your book?"

 

"I'm s- sorry, Miss Cheerilee," she stammered out, flustered. "It must not have been in my bag."

Miss Cheerilee sighed. "Would somepony be willing to share their textbook with Miss Tiara for the rest of the class?"

Embarrassingly, there was total silence for several moments, as absolutely nopony raised their hooves, not even Silver Spoon. Finally, a lone hoof popped up in the air near the back of the class. Miss Cheerilee glanced in that direction.

"Thank you, Sweetie Belle," she said. "Diamond Tiara, can you move seats next to her, and share the book? Once you are settled in place, I'd like you to start reading to the class at the beginning of the chapter."

Diamond Tiara slowly got up, put her saddlebags on, and hiked to the back. She pushed an empty desk next to Sweetie Belle, who immediately moved her history book between them. Once Diamond had sat down, she looked at the book and began reading in a bored monotone.

“ _ **Before Equestria was founded, ponies were separated into three tribes…**_ ”

Fortunately, she only had to do this for one page of the book, then Cheerilee switched readers. She continued doing this, switching who was reading every so often. Very few of them managed to make anything they were reading sound at all interesting.

The lesson dragged on and on.  _This was so boring!_  Usually when things got this boring would be about the time she started passing notes to Silvy. Silvy wasn't anywhere near her, though. She could try with Sweetie Belle, but she honestly didn't think she'd reply.

Pushing her mane back in frustration, and wincing as she remembered her tiara wasn't there, her only solace was that Silver Spoon was in the same exact spot as her. She glanced in that direction to confirm that, and was surprised to see a note in her hoof.

Well, maybe she was going to try to pass it to her, half the room away or not? She waited a minute, and Silver Spoon passed it alright. She passed it over to Twist, who opened it up, read it, and started scribbling out a reply.

Was it that easy to replace her? She'd known Twist and Silver Spoon had hung out before, back when she'd been busy running the paper, but that was different. The two of them had always passed notes to each other, walked to and from class together, and hung out together. They were  _best friends_.

Now, suddenly, she felt like she'd been replaced. She pictured Twist as Silvy's new best friend. Images of the two of them going to the movies together, gossipping about the other ponies, and having fun together ran through her head. She pictured the two of them laughing and doing her and Silvy's private "Bump Bump Sugar Lump Rump" greeting, and fumed.

Lost in her own private thoughts, in took seeing Sweetie Belle get up next to her for her to notice that half the class had already gone outside.

_Right, it must be lunchtime._

Pulling herself out of her seat, she stumbled and nearly fell. Diamond automatically felt for her tiara to catch it. Not feeling it there did absolutely nothing to improve her mood.

Looking down, she discovered that one strap of her saddlebags had wrapped itself around one of her legs. She pulled her trapped leg carefully out of the straps, and put them back on.

She slowly walked outside, not really looking forward to lunch, given that all she had was the muffin she'd been given earlier in the day. Everypony seemed to be reading the Foal Free Press, but she ignored them, since she didn't really want to talk right now, anyway. Picking out a table no one else was sitting at, she took her saddlebags back off.

Searching through them, she pulled out a paper bag and put it on the table in front of her. Opening it, she found the muffin inside crumbling to pieces. It must have gotten smashed some time earlier in the day.

On a normal day, this would be nothing more than a snack for her. With it crumbled into pieces like that, she might have even tossed it. But this muffin was all she had, and she wasn't even sure what she was going be able to bring tomorrow.

She reluctantly started eating one of the pieces of the muffin, thinking of the rice pilaf and waldorf salad she would have had normally today. As she did so, she heard a thud behind her. She craned her head around, and saw Twist laying on the ground next to  _her_  saddlebags.

"Oops!" Twist said, seeming far too cheerful. "Thorry!"

She dusted off Diamond's saddlebags, picked herself up, and trotted off, totally oblivious to Diamond's irritation turning into full-blown anger behind her.

_How dare she just crash into my stuff like that after stealing my best friend and act like nothing's wrong! I'm going to give her a piece of my mind!_

Getting up, Diamond charged over there in a fury, shoving aside anypony unfortunate enough to be in her way. A few copies of the student paper went flying, and even more eyes seemed to be on her.

" _What_  do you think you're doing, crashing into my bags like that?" she screeched in a fury. "You could have broken something?"

Twist seemed entirely taken aback by this and just stood there, looking blank. Silvy stepped in to defend her.

"Don't you think you're being a little-"

"And  _you_! One day!" Diamond yelled at top volume. "One day and you've already replaced me!"

"It's not like that!" Silver Spoon replied.

"Isn't it?" she replied. "You've spent the whole day ignoring me and passing notes with  _Twist._ And now you're spending lunch with her after she nearly tramples over my bags!"

Diamond's eyes were starting to tear up, even if some part of her said she was being unreasonable. Twist seemed to have lost a bit of her normal happy detachment from everything and actually seemed upset now.

"I thaid I was th-thorry!" she protested. Then a copy of the Foal Free Press lying on the ground caught Twist's eye. She picked it up and started reading the front page intently, ignoring Diamond.

Twist not paying attention to her only served to make Diamond Tiara more upset.  _What could possibly be more important than her right now?_

"Maybe if you actually looked where you were going occasionally, instead of traipsing around with your eyes closed and that stupid smile on your face all the time-"

Eyes tearing up, Twist looked up from the paper. "D-Diamond? I t-think you have o-other pro-problems right now."

Twist held the paper out to her, turned to the front page. She went to brush it aside, but then the picture on the front cover registered with her. Her annoyance at Twist and Silvy faded, and she got a sick feeling at the bottom of her stomach.

On the front page was a big picture of Apple Bloom laying under her wagon, leg clearly broken. The headline read " **DIAMOND TIARA CRIPPLES APPLE BLOOM - HAS SHE GONE TOO FAR?** ".

She remembered how many ponies around her were reading that paper and she went pale. Looking around, she was receiving even more glares, and a few foals seemed to be heading in her direction.

Not even paying attention to the fight she'd started a minute ago, she stammered out. "I-I'm sorry! I'd b-better go.."

Fear in her eyes, she blindly stumbled back to her bags, only to be cut off by Snip and Snails blocking her way. Normally she wouldn't have too much trouble with those two morons, but they actually looked upset, and with a few others starting to come over, she might actually be in trouble.

"Hey! Where do you think  _you're_  going?" Snips said.

"Yeah. Where are  _you_  going?"

Approaching from one side, a blue earth pony chimed in. "We heard about what you did to Apple Bloom."

She thought her name was Archer, but couldn't really remember. She'd never talked to her other than in passing. Looking away, she suddenly noticed Rumble was approaching from her other side, and was really starting to get worried.

"Where do you get off yelling at Twist like that?  What she'd ever do to you?" he exclaimed, and the others sort of glanced at him for a moment, then looked away.

"You see, we like Apple Bloom," Snails continued. "We thought you should know how she feels right now."

"Yeah. What he said."

As all four of them approached, she panicked. She  _couldn't_  have a broken leg right now! Nopony'd help her out if she got hurt. This was bad.

"Miss Cheerilee?!" she called out, getting pretty freaked out. There wasn't any response.

_What was with this? Why wasn't Miss Cheerilee ever there when she was needed?_

She took a deep breath.  _Ok, think, Diamond. Daddy always talked about knowing ponies weaknesses and taking advantage of them. Can I do that here? What are their weaknesses?_

Well, Snips and Snails were dumb, she supposed, but how could she take advantage of that? Then she noticed something. The two of them actually were leaving a lot more room between them then they should be as they approached.

Not even stopping to think, she darted forward as fast as her pudgy legs would let her, rather than backwards like they were expecting, pushing right  _between_  them. Startled, they didn't manage to block her and got shoved aside. It took a moment for them to grasp what had happened and turn around.

While they were doing that, she grabbed her bags and fled the schoolyard, adrenaline making her go the fastest she thought she ever had run. She ran and ran and kept on running, paying absolutely no attention to where she was going.

After a while, she tripped over a tree branch, and fell to the ground. Exhausted, she lay there for a moment, just hoping it would be over quickly. When nothing happened, she slowly picked herself up, and looked around.

All her pursuers were gone. Maybe they'd been gone for a while, even, since she hadn't been looking. She walked over to where her bags lay from her fall, and winced as one hoof touched the ground.

Examining it, she picked out a stone that had managed to get stuck in it. It had left a bit of a bruise behind, though. Well, she'd have to live with it for now. She limped over and put her bags back on.

Looking around, she she had gotten a lot further from the school then she thought. And, it suddenly occurred to her, from her lunch.

Well, there was no way she was going back now. Even if Miss Cheerilee  _didn't_ get on her about leaving school grounds before school was over, she couldn't go back. They'd gang up on her again, and she'd be hurt worse next time.

And now everypony knew what she'd done. Worse, the paper had acted like she  _wanted_  Apple Bloom hurt or something! How could they  _do_  that? How could they  _do_  that to  _her_? It wasn't fair!

She wanted her daddy. She wanted her daddy so bad to come and make it all better, and make all her problems go away. It hurt that he wasn't there for her, and it hurt even more that some of her problems were his fault.

Diamond Tiara trudged along the road, hoof hurting, and a stitch in her side from running so hard. She wasn't really sure where she was going, but eventually found herself at the edge of Sweet Apple Acres.

She abruptly turned, and started making her way towards the clubhouse. She'd be in big trouble if any of the Apples caught her, but once she got to the treehouse, that was probably the best place for her right now, oddly.

She cautiously made her way through the orchard, quite aware how much her pink coat made her stand out. A few times, she thought she heard something, and hid behind a tree, but nopony turned out to be there.

Eventually she made it to the clubhouse and limped slowly up the ramp. Unsurprisingly, nopony was there. Well, school was still going on without her, she supposed. She doubted anypony really missed her.

Well, Miss Cheerilee might. At least, enough for her to be in trouble if she went back tomorrow, especially since she still wouldn't have her schoolbooks. She might even want to talk to her parents again, which  _couldn't_  happen.

Why had she been stupid enough to go off on Twist and Silvy like that, anyways? Sure, Twist shouldn't have crashed into her bag like that, but it wasn't really her fault if she was clumsy. Diamond supposed she couldn't really expect Silvy to go on with no friends, either, even if  _she_  had to.

But here she was. Living in a cobbled together treehouse that wasn't even hers. And nopony liked her. Perhaps nopony had ever liked her, and she'd just never quite figured that out before. Morosely, she tossed her bags in a corner, making a crunching sound when they hit.

Wait, had she just broken something?

She limped over to her bag and started rooting through it for what must be the third time today, trying to figure out what had broken. Everything  _looked_  about how she'd left it. Then she noticed the edge of a plastic bag under everything.

Pulling the bag out, it turned out to be full of more than a dozen peppermint sticks, and since they were broken in half, she was pretty sure they were what had broken. At least it wasn't anything major. But where had they come from?

Suddenly something clicked in her mind. She hadn't actually  _seen_  Twist fall, she'd just heard it, and saw Twist dusting off her bags afterwards. What if she hadn't actually fallen, but had actually just  _pretended_ to, and stashed these in there?

They  _were_  Twist's signature peppermint sticks, too, of that there wasn't any doubt. Why would she have done that, though? It wasn't like they were friends or anything. Her only real friend had been Silvy-

Silvy. Silvy, who Twist had just spent all morning talking to, and passing notes with.  _Oh Celestia, she was dumb. How could she have been so stupid?_

It was obvious to her now. Because they  _were_  friends, Silver Spoon and Twist had been talking about  _her_  all morning. Twist, after finding out how bad things were for her, must have wanted to cheer her up, and stuck those peppermint sticks in her bag as a surprise for her.

And all she gotten for her trouble was yelled at. Twist probably wasn't thinking very good thoughts about her now, and neither was Silvy. She doubted they'd try to help her out again.

With the article in the school paper, everypony else was bound to be against her, too. So she didn't have friends. She couldn't go to school. She didn't even have  _lunch._  Why couldn't she have anything? Why couldn't _something_  go right?

She dissolved into full fledged nonstop crying and this time there was nopony there to comfort her. She cried, and called out for her daddy despite some part of her mind knowing he wasn't going to be there. She wasn't even sure how long she cried for.

 

Hours later, when somepony pulled a blanket around her, she didn't wake up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Old authors notes:  
> Well, I think this is finally in a publishable state. It's possible it could use another round of revision, but I'd really like to get something out. I've had a lot of trouble writing recently. By rights, I should have released another chapter of Just Winging It before this, but this is what was flowing when I was able to get some writing done.  
> Hope everyone likes it. Just about everything in this chapter was already planned when I wrote the last chapter, incidentally...


	7. Another Day In Paradise

Lying on a cushion in the clubhouse, Diamond Tiara slept a restless, disturbed sleep for the rest of the day and well into the next morning. Periodically she awoke, and then, as the events of the previous few days registered with her, she drifted back off to sleep. If she actually had to get up, she would have to deal with things, and right now, she just couldn't.

Eventually, after the fifth time a rooster had crowed, she woke up, and the sunlight hitting her eyes was too bright for her to just go back to sleep again.

She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked around. A blanket was wrapped around her that she didn't recall putting on the evening before, but then, she had been in a pretty bad state at the time.

In any case it was morning, and it must be time for school. Memories of how she had left school yesterday came to her mind.

No. No school. She wasn't going back. She was never going back. They couldn't make her.

Diamond pulled the blanket over her head. Maybe without the sun in her eyes, she'd be able to go back to sleep again. Then she heard hoofsteps coming in her direction.

"Morning!" a voice said cheerily.

She resolutely stayed curled up under the blanket. Maybe if she ignored Scootaloo, she'd go away.

"Good morning, Diamond! Time to get up!"

"Mrrggmmmph!" she replied.

Suddenly, the blanket was pulled from over her eyes. She blinked as the bright sun shone in her eyes. The first thing she saw was Scootaloo standing there looking satisfied, blanket in her muzzle. Then the blanket was dropped unceremoniously on the floor.

"I was willing to let you sleep in earlier, but if you don't get cleaned up and ready for school now, we'll both be late."

 _What are you, my mother?_ she thought irritably, then winced. Her own mother's death still hurt, even a few years after the fact. She covered it up with a scowl. "I'm not going."

Scootaloo frowned as well. "What do you mean, you aren't going? It's a school day!"

"I  _can't_  go back after what happened." She buried her head in her forelegs. "I just can't."

Scootaloo sighed. "If I spend time arguing with you, I  _will_  be late. Fine. We'll take about this later. Just make sure you forge a note for when you return to class on Monday."

She grabbed her saddlebags and marched out of the clubhouse. Diamond snatched the blanket off the floor, curled up, pulled it over her head, and went back to sleep.

Eventually she  _had_  to get up, though. Her stomach was grumbling too much, and her bladder was about ready to burst. She lay there for a few minutes anyway, then forced herself up and darted out the ramp, ignoring her hoof's protests.

There weren't any bathrooms anywhere close enough for her to get to, unfortunately, which, in her mind, was a major strike against the clubhouse as a place to live. After using a bush, much to her embarrassment, her stomach's complaints came to the forefront.

Diamond had  _never_  been this hungry before. She was used to just calling for Greywithers anytime she wanted a snack, and if she missed a meal, she'd have just gotten something from Grey afterwards.  Now she'd gone a full day with only a hayshake, a muffin, pieces of another, and some peppermint sticks. Upset as she was, she was still going to have to find something to eat soon.

_Well, she was surrounded by apple trees, wasn't she?_

She looked around, and, fortunately, none of the Apples were there. She really should have looked before coming down. That was going to get her in trouble if she wasn't careful, though it didn't really seem like they came by this area often.

So, there were apples all around her. How was she supposed to get them down?

Actually, Diamond had seen the Apple family getting apples down. They just kicked the trunks, and a whole bunch of them fell. It seemed almost pathetically easy. Big Macintosh, Applejack, and even Apple Bloom did it.  _Though_ , she thought guiltily,  _Apple Bloom wouldn't be doing that again for a good while._

Her eyes darted around, despite having already checked for other ponies, because she really didn't want to get caught doing this. She backed up slowly to a tree, and kicked out with one of her hind legs, as hard as she could. Then she fell down as pain shot through her leg.

She lay there for a few minutes, clutching it and whimpering, eyes watering.

 _Dumb_ ,  _Diamond Tiara,_   _dumb. Kicking the tree with the same hoof you bruised earlier was a really really dumb idea._

When her eyes stopped watering and the pain subsided, she realised that not a single apple had fallen. This was clearly far more complicated than she'd thought.

At this point, she'd better just go into town and buy something with some of her precious allowance. She didn't want to. Some part of her was still huddled under the blanket in the clubhouse. But she was too hungry. She would have to ask Scootaloo how she got apples later.

Her course of action decided, Diamond got herself up, hoof still hurting a bit, and limped down the road towards town. The dirt road turned to cobblestones, and soon she was coming up on the town square.

The first stall she saw made her wince and back away a little. It was the stand for Sweet Apple Acres, and Applejack was manning it. On seeing her, Applejack looked at Diamond with such a glare that she found herself quickly trotting to the other side of the square, regardless of how her hoof felt.

She'd have to deal with Applejack eventually, of course, but that could be  _later_. She wasn't in any state for a confrontation at the moment. She'd just buy something from one of the other vendors.

On the side of the square she was at now, there was a two-pony stall that seemed to be selling teriyaki bowls with mixed vegetables and rice nearby. That was a little plebeian, but it was food, and wasn't going to use up all her bits. She trotted over and looked over the menu. Well, this would do, anyways.

Standing in front of the stall, she looked up. There was only one pony behind the stall at the moment, a cream colored young stallion with a red mane who was busily counting bits behind the counter. He didn't seem to have noticed her.

She could take care of that. Diamond Tiara loudly cleared her throat, and stood there expectantly. The lanky stallion's head jerked up, and the bits spilled out of the box he was counting from, causing him to curse and start gathering them up.

After he had gathered his bits up, he straightened up and gave her a hard look. Well, she had his attention, at least.

"I'll have a rice and vegetable teriyaki bowl with raspberry ice tea," she ordered, in a no-nonsense tone of voice. The tea was a little overboard, but she was pretty thirsty, too.  _Now, be a good food merchant and get me my lunch. I'm starving!_

She wasn't particularly prepared for the look of scorn that crossed his face, or the response he gave.

"You!" he said loudly. "You've made me lose my place! Do you know how long I spent counting that out?"

"Well, I-" she started, before being cut off.

He gave her a closer look. "Oh, it's  _you_. I almost didn't recognise you without your muzzle in the air like some Canterlot wannabe princess. Where's your high and mighty father? Or that tagalong of yours?"

"That's not fair-" She'd never been treated like  _this_  when getting something to eat before. Shouldn't he have been serving customers?

"And what would somepony like  _you_  know about fair, going around starting fights and breaking other ponies legs?"

_What? Did everypony know about that?_

A few hoofsteps sounded to the side of the stall, but Diamond Tiara paid them no mind.

"I-I'm not- I didn't-"

"Sure you didn't." He snorted. "We don't need  _your_ kind of business. Get out of here! Get your no good, stuck-up muzzle away from this stall!"

Sure, she couldn't go to school, but she couldn't even buy anything to eat? Was the whole universe out to get her? She wanted to be tough and put him in his place, but she just couldn't deal with this today. Tears started streaming down her face despite herself.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Scram!" He stomped one hoof for emphasis. At the same time, she heard hoofsteps ring out coming towards the stall.

    

Diamond bolted away from the market. Behind her, she heard some arguing, and a strident female voice giving a lecture, but she didn't turn around, even when she heard somepony calling her back. She ran out of the town square as fast as her legs would take her.

She couldn't cope. She was past that. She wanted her daddy. She wanted her mommy or daddy  _so bad_  right now. And they weren't there for her. Daddy  _wouldn't_  help her, and mommy was gone. With the tears in her eyes, she couldn't even tell where she was going, but it didn't matter. Everywhere was bad for her now.

The funny thing was she'd thought she'd cried herself out yesterday. It didn't seem like she should have any tears left, but evidently she did. She kept going until her hoof started complaining again. Nopony seemed to be following her, so she slowed, then stopped.

Getting slightly better control of herself, Diamond blew her nose, blinked away her tears as best she could, and tried to figure out where she'd ended up. As she looked around, she realised that maybe her thoughts had influenced where she'd gone after all.

This section of Ponyville was fairly deserted, especially this time of day. She would have known where she was from the trees, flowers and the black iron gate in front of her, even if a sign saying "Ponyville Cemetery" wasn't right there.

Nopony really liked to visit the cemetery, and she really was no exception. She hadn't been there in quite a while. But she nudged the gate open anyways, and walked inside, closing it behind her.

Wandering down a grassy path, she weaved between trees and gravestones, her hooves automatically going down a route that was etched in her memory. Soon enough, she was there, standing on a well maintained patch of grass in front of a gravestone. The headstone read  _ **"Primrose - Beloved wife and mother"**_ _._

She lay down in front of the gravestone. She wanted her mommy, but this was about as close as she could get. This was as close as she'd  _ever_  get again. At least she could talk to mommy, even if she couldn't answer back.

She lay there shaking for a moment, fumbling for what to say.

"Mommy?" she said hesitantly in a weak voice. "I'm sorry I haven't visited in a while. I miss you, and I really need you right now."

There was no reply but the wind whipping through the trees, not that she'd expected one.

"I've really m-messed everything up. I k-kinda broke another fillies legs. I didn't mean to! But now everypony hates me and nopony wants me and daddy doesn't love me anymore and I just d-don't know what to d-do or where to g-go."

She sobbed uncontrollably for a few minutes before getting her composure back enough to continue.

"I-I know I'm not wearing my t-tiara," she managed. "You always thought I looked l-like a p-princess with it on. Daddy b-broke it. I d-don't even have the pieces."

She sniffed, and blew her nose on the grass.

"Everypony t-thinks I'm a b-bad pony. Am I? Maybe they're r-right. M-Maybe Equestra doesn't even need a stuck up p-pink pony that hurts e-everypony around her."

There was nothing but silence.

"Oh, what's the use? I'm just lying here talking to some d-dumb stone," Diamond sat up. "I wish you were here. I l-love you so much…"

She set her head down in her forelegs and just sat there sobbing for some time. She didn't know how long and didn't really care. She only snapped out of it when she felt something furry rubbing against her side.

Diamond Tiara wiped her tears away, and looked behind her. Rubbing against her was a tiny white kitten. It was the cutest thing she'd seen in quite a while. She managed a bit of a smile.

"Hello there, kitty. Are you sure you want to hang out with a bad pony like me?"

In response, the kitten walked up, looked at Diamond Tiara and started walking back and forth next to her, rubbing her head against one of Diamond's forelegs in universal cat for 'pet me now'.

She started stroking the kittens fur obligingly. The kitten purred and arched up against her, rubbing against her side. Her tail flicked back and forth.

She just kept on petting the kitten, feeling its soft fur against her forelegs. After a while, the kitten rolled over, and demanded her attention on its soft underbelly. Of course, this turned out to be more of an invitation to play, as the kitten started tussling with her, grabbing her hoof with its paws and doing a fierce mock attack on her with her claws and fangs.

After a few minutes, the kitten settled down, and let her rub its belly, especially once she started scratching behind its ears as well. Her emotions gradually calmed down as she devoted all her attention to pampering the kitten next to her.

As she returned to a more normal state of mind, she looked at the kitten.

"Now what exactly are you doing wandering around in a cemetery, anyways?" The kitten looked back with unblinking blue eyes. "I'm sure somepony has to be missing you."

She'd be glad to just keep the kitten, of course, but she couldn't even feed herself. Besides, the kitty was wearing a collar. She must already belong to  _somepony_.

Diamond Tiara scratched her under the collar. The kitten purred even louder, enjoying the scratching, and a tag worked its way from the underside.

She flipped the tag over. "Snowpuff. If found, please return to Vanilla on 34 Black Currant Rd., Ponyville 4723". She didn't think that address was too far away, actually. She supposed that wasn't surprising if 'Snowpuff' got here on foot. Maybe she could at least make sure the kitty got home safely, even if  _she_  couldn't.

Of course, Snowpuff wasn't that great of a name for a kitten, to her mind. _Maybe 'Pearl', or 'Iris', or 'Ivory' would be better._   _Or Claws,_ she thought, as they dug into her hoof once again.

"Okay, kitty, come on," She stood up. "Let's get you home to your family."

When Snowpuff didn't want to move from the spot she was in, Diamond just scooped her up, and put the kitty on her back. There, she curled up and seemed to go to sleep faster than Diamond would have thought possible, not even waking up when Diamond started walking.

Following the same path as before, she left the cemetery, and started trying to figure out how to get to the kitten's home. Soon she was walking between houses, looking at addresses, and it wasn't that long before she spotted a little filly wandering around looking back and forth, clearly upset.

The girl's face lit up as she saw Diamond with Snowpuff curled up on her back. She ran up to her.

"You found my kitty!"

Suddenly Diamond found herself embraced in a surprisingly big hug for such a little filly. The kitten, feeling a jolt, cracked open one eye, assessed the situation, and closed it again.

Diamond found that she had very little prior experience that would cover having a young filly clinging to her. "She's yours, then? Are you Vanilla?"

The filly nodded, letting go, finally. With her off-white coat and dark brown mane, it was pretty easy to tell where her name came from.

"I was just going outside, and Snowpuff ran out before I could stop her!"

Several snide responses did run through Diamond's mind, but she stopped herself.  _Everypony already thinks I'm awful. Why prove it?_

"She came up to me, and started rubbing up against me. I think she just wanted to be petted."

"Oh, well, I can do that!"

Vanilla grabbed the kitten by the front legs, and started rubbing her belly. The cat looked at Diamond Tiara with a resigned 'the things I have to put up with' look.

"I don't think she likes being held like that," Diamond Tiara said, having to restrain herself even further. "Maybe you should put her down, and pet her on the ground?"

The filly dropped Snowpuff to the ground. The kitten circled around Diamond once, rubbed against her, and then went over to Vanilla, who started stroking her.

"Thanks for finding my kitty!" the filly called out, and the two of them walked off together as Diamond Tiara looked on, a bit enviously.

_If only life were that simple. Well, maybe Scootaloo was back from school_ _by now._

 

As Diamond Tiara started to back to the clubhouse, her stomach rumbled yet again, reminding her how hungry she was. She sighed, and started munching on the grass on the side of the road as she walked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Old Notes:  
> This may be a trend, but a lot of thanks to Luminary, who I ran the chapter by twice. His commentary did help considerably. And poor Diamond. She really can't catch a break, can she?


	8. Cleanup Time

Diamond Tiara trudged slowly up the ramp, tired, and looking much worse for wear. From inside the clubhouse, she could hear the occasional hoofstep, and things being moved around.  _Oh good,_ she thought to herself,  _Scootaloo must be back._

It was only later that it occurred to her that somepony else could have been in the clubhouse making noise, or, for that matter, that she wasn't supposed to actually  _like_  Scootaloo. Fortunately, this time Scootaloo was alone.  

She looked up as Diamond entered, wrinkled her nose, and said "Man, Diamond, you really stink."

It goes without saying that this  _wasn't_  what Diamond wanted to hear after the day she'd had.

"And now you're starting in on me, too? It's just 'kick Diamond while she's down day', isn't it?" she fumed. "If I suck so badly, I suppose you won't want me staying here, either, then! I'll just find… a bush or something to sleep in, I g-guess…"

 

Diamond turned around in a huff, trying to keep herself from crying. She took a few steps down the ramp, not even really sure where she was going. Before she'd gone too far, she felt a tug on her tail. She turned and glared behind her. Scootaloo released Diamond's tail from her mouth, looking as though she'd just tasted something foul.

"Woah, woah, woah! That is  _not_  what I meant. Chill a little. It sounds like  _somepony_  had a bad day," Scootaloo said, sounding exasperated. "It just smells like you haven't had a bath in days, that's all. I could tell when you walked in by my nose alone."

That hadn't even occurred to her. She slumped a bit, hating to think of the condition she must be in, and suddenly itched all over just thinking about it.

She wiped off her eyes with one foreleg. "Oh."

"You know, you don't look so hot, either. Your coat is all dirty, there are green stains on your muzzle, and I saw something green sticking out of your teeth," Scootaloo said, then did a double-take. "Wait, have you been eating grass?"

Diamond's ears drooped as she remembered her attempts at getting lunch.

"I was  _so_  hungry," she told Scootaloo, feeling downhearted. "I haven't had anything else to eat for…"

Her voice trailed off as she tried to remember the last time she'd eaten a good meal. Scootaloo seemed to have gotten the idea, though.

"I know you don't have many bits, but-" Scootaloo said. "I'll tell you what, hold on a sec. I'll be right back."

Scootaloo pushed past Diamond on the ramp and headed down. Diamond heard some rustling, and a few minutes later, Scootaloo was back. Bits of twig and leaves were in her mane and coat, and she was carrying a few apples. She gave them to Diamond, and the two of them headed into the clubhouse.

"Why don't you eat these first, and then we'll talk."

_How had Scootaloo done that?_  That was embarrassing, and she hated being dependant on Scootaloo. She really, really hated it. But she hadn't gotten enough grass earlier to do more than take the edge of her hunger. She gobbled down the apples, core and all, only pausing to spit out the seeds. Scootaloo watched with poorly concealed amusement.

Finally having gotten something substantial in her, she became a bit more self-conscious.

"Where did you even get these from?"

Scootaloo gave her a 'boy are you dumb' look. It seemed like she was getting a lot of those lately.

"The apple trees." Scootaloo pointed to the door. "Right outside the clubhouse? All over the place, in fact?"

Diamond looked more than a little put out. "I  _tried_  kicking one of those trees to get some apples earlier! I can still feel it in one of my hind legs! How did you get them down?"

"Diamond," Scootaloo replied as she shook her head. "You don't just  _kick_  them. You have to know how and where. It's an Apple family thing. Just kicking them any ol' which way won't work."

"You're not an Apple either, though," she pointed out.

"Well, no," she said, "but I'm pretty good at climbing up trees."

"Climbing trees." Diamond put her foreleg to her forehead and closed her eyes. "Right."

Her mother had always told her climbing trees wasn't a proper activity for a young lady. She'd always followed everything her mommy told her, but surviving was more important than being a proper young lady. The trouble was she didn't really know how to do it. She'd probably fall and break something.

And it's not like she was athletic like Scootaloo was. Diamond watched as she opened a trap door on the ceiling and pulled things out. She was pretty sure she wouldn't have even been able to reach it.

"What's all that stuff for?" she asked, pointing at the tub Scootaloo had pulled down. It had a scrub brush, a bar of soap, and a bottle of some sort of green goop inside it. Scootaloo grabbed a few towels and tossed them in as well. 

"We're gonna take a quick trip down to the pond," Scootaloo said.

"What for?"

"Well,  _I'm_  ready for a bath myself. And  _you_  are way more than ready." Scootaloo waved in Diamond's direction. "Obviously, we don't have a bathroom or anything, but there are ways around that."

A bath would certainly be lovely, but that stuff wasn't anything she associated with a proper bath. No bath salts, bubble bath, or bath toys, for one thing.  _Whatever. Let's see what Scootaloo has in mind._

"Alright," she said, resigning herself to yet more walking. "Let's go."

Scootaloo picked up the large tub and awkwardly balanced it on her back. "I'd  _usually_ toss this in our wagon. No chance of that, though. It was pretty smashed up."

With everypony talking about Apple Bloom's hind legs, she hadn't thought much about their wagon. It would have been damaged, though, wouldn't it?

Scootaloo slowly walked down the ramp, and Diamond Tiara trotted after her.

"You know, how did that wagon manage to hit Apple Bloom hard enough to break her legs, anyway?"

Scootaloo glared back at her, as if she wasn't sure if Diamond was trying to make fun of her.

"Didn't you  _see_  it? It was your fault, after all," Scootaloo growled.

Diamond shrank away from Scootaloo. "I was kinda far away, and by the time I got closer, Miss Cheerilee was yelling at me."

"We all got tossed out of the wagon, but Apple Bloom landed on some rocks right in front of it, and her hind legs got caught between the two," Scootaloo explained. "You really just thought it'd be  _funny_?"

Somehow, with all the horrible things that had happened to her, even if things had gone as planned, it didn't seem that funny any more.

"I don't know." She sighed. "It just seems dumb now. It  _was_  dumb. And now everypony in town hates me."

"I doubt everypony would even have heard 'bout it," Scootaloo said, then frowned. "I know you weren't able to get apples earlier, but why didn't you just buy something for lunch?"

"Because everypony  _does_  hate me," she insisted. "When I went to buy lunch, they wouldn't sell me anything!"

"What?" Scootaloo asked, surprised. "Even if they don't like you, usually they'll sell you  _something_. That's why they're there! They might overcharge you, of course."

"They wouldn't. The stallion in the stall started yelling at me. At me!"

"At somepony who looked like they'd gone rolling in the dirt a few times?" Scootaloo said.

"That was from later. I went to visit my mother."

"Don't think I've met her. Good idea, though. Maybe she could take you in or talk to your father for you," Scootaloo said, looking hopeful, probably at the prospect of not having to deal with her in the future. "How is she?"

"Dead,"  Diamond said flatly.

"Oh," Scootaloo said. "I'm sorry."

"She's  _been_  dead. I just-" Diamond shook her head. "I don't really feel like talking about it, okay?"

"Alright," Scootaloo replied, and they continued walking in silence. Once they got near the pond, Scootaloo stopped for a minute and wiped the sweat off her forehead with one wing, panting. The stuff on her back must be heavy.

"So, what now?" Diamond asked, still not sure what they were doing.

Scootaloo put the tub down, and started emptying it.

"We're close enough to the pond, I think," Scootaloo said, looking over at the pond. "Now we need to take this bucket and fill the tub with water."

"Wouldn't the water in the pond be all muddy, though?" Diamond asked.

She shook her head. "Nah, it's pretty clean. Kinda cold, but it's warm enough out right now. Winter is a pain, though."

Yeah, when it's snowing or the pond is covered in ice  _would_ be a problem. "What  _do_  you do during winter?"

"I don't take baths nearly as often, that's for sure. It seems like a lot of Cutie Mark Crusader sleepovers happened last winter, though."

So Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were helping her out. It must be nice to have friends like that. She missed Silver Spoon even more, thinking about it.

Scootaloo brought the bucket over to the pond, filled it, and dumped water into the tub. Then she went back to the pond, and repeated the whole thing all over again. She kept doing it until the tub was mostly full, pausing once to scoop a fish out of the tub and bring it back to the pond.

"I don't know if you noticed, but there's a cork here on the side." Scootaloo tapped the side of the tub, where there was indeed a cork plugged in. "I'm gonna get in and scrub myself down with the brush and soap, and wash my mane and tail. Then I'll pull out the cork to drain it, and it'll be your turn."

Diamond dipped one foreleg into the pond experimentally and shivered. Summer or not, that water was cold!

"This doesn't seem very much like a proper bath to me," she said.

"Oh?" Scootaloo replied. "What would you consider a  _proper_  bath, then?"

"Well, first I'd call for Grey, and he'd draw up a bath for me. I'd check the temperature and get in, he'd add rose-scented bubble bath to it, bath salts, and a few toys, then he'd start scrubbing my back…" her voice faded off as she saw Scootaloo's look of disgust.

"Man, you really were spoiled, weren't you?" she said. "I've had baths at a buncha places, including at  _Rarity's_ , and none of them were like _that_. Though sleeping over at the Carousel Boutique was close. Certainly nopony's ever  _scrubbed my back_  for me."

Diamond Tiara bristled. "And what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing if you don't wanna be able to take care of things when nopony is there. But if you hafta do things without help, and you can't even take a bath by yourself…"

She was actually getting pretty worried about that, and not just in regards to baths. But she wasn't about to admit that to  _Scootaloo_.

"I can manage."

Scootaloo sighed. "Sure you can. Well, watch me while I take my bath, I guess, and just try to do the same thing when it's your turn."

With that, Scootaloo jumped in the tub, splashing Diamond with water. Diamond sputtered and shook herself off indignantly. She was pretty sure watching somepony else bathe had absolutely no decorum to it, so she tried to ignore her, no matter what Scootaloo might have said.

Not that Scootaloo made that easy, of course, as she seemed to feel it was her duty to provide Diamond with a running commentary.

"So, you splash all around and get yourself good and wet. Then rub soap all over, especially in hard to reach places, like under your wings…"

"I don't have wings," Diamond interjected.

"Next you grab this scrub brush, and scrub off all the soap," Scootaloo said proudly, like she'd just described how to solve a complex physics problem. "Easy."

Right. She could have figured  _that_  much out. But Scootaloo just kept up the chatter. She scrubbed as Diamond tried to avert her gaze, then grabbed that awful-looking bottle of green goop.

"Now, just rub the shampoo in your mane and tail, work it in real good, wait a minute, then wash it out."

Diamond thought back to her own previous baths. She knew  _something_  about this. "Aren't you supposed to have separate shampoos for your mane and tail?"

"Why bother?" Scootaloo shrugged. "It's not like I got a buncha bits for shampoo or anything. No  _conditioner_ , either, if you're gonna ask 'bout that next. Not quite sure what it's for, actually."

Well, this was certainly going to be crude. She was distracted when Scootaloo jumped out of the tub. Wet and dripping, she shook herself off, splashing Diamond yet again.

As Diamond gave her a glare, Scootaloo wrapped herself in a towel, and pulled the cork out of the tub. While it drained, she dried herself off, then put the cork back in.

"I'll right, I'm done," she told Diamond. "Just fill it with the bucket, and you can get started."

Diamond looked at her blankly. "Fill it?"

"Yes, fill it," Scootaloo snapped at her. "I brought all this stuff here myself, I filled mine, I'll probably be lugging it back, and I'm helping you out with buying dinner. I'm not filling the tub for you, and I'm not scrubbing your back. Got it?"

Diamond waved one foreleg dismissively. "Fine, fine."

She trudged over and filled up the bucket from the pond, then lugged over to the tub and dumped it in. Filled, it was actually pretty heavy. With a sigh, she picked up the handle with her teeth, and took it over to fill it again.

"Make sure you don't scoop up anything else with the water," Scootaloo said, and pulled a piece of seaweed out of the tub. Diamond just ignored her and kept filling. Once it was high enough, and she was too tired to fill it further, she delicately stepped in.  _Gah, that's cold._

Scootaloo shrugged. "You'll get used to it after a bit."

Somehow, that didn't seem likely.  _Now where did that bar of soap go?_  Diamond started fishing around, and after nearly slipping, found it. She started crudely smearing the soap all over her body.

Rudely enough, Scootaloo seemed to still be watching her as she bathed. Worse, she started up her commentary again.

"You missed a spot over there," she said, pointing.

Diamond quickly smeared soap on the spot in question. "I was just about to get that!"

Finally, when she figured she'd gotten everywhere, she set down the bar of soap. Scootaloo seemed to have different ideas, though.

"Aren't you gonna clean under your tail and between your hind legs?" Scootaloo said.

Diamond flushed. Scootaloo wanted her to do  _what_?

"Why are you even  _looking_  there?" she yelled.

"You don't wanna end up smelling like pee, do you?"

She huffed a bit, but decided Scootaloo had a point, and reluctantly gave in.

"Fine, but just… don't watch me, okay?"

Scootaloo  _did_  look away for a minute, much to her relief. Then Diamond started scrubbing all the soap off, and Scootaloo was right back on her case.

It seemed like her comments just came one after another: "You know, you aren't holding that right."

Moments later, it was: "You're missing spots again."

Then: "I think you need to scrub over there harder."

At this point, Diamond wasn't too sure if Scootaloo was trying to be helpful or annoy her. Possibly both. She picked up the shampoo, and immediately had more on her mind once she looked at the label.

"A sophisticated formulation guaranteed to prevent fleas and ticks… This is  _dog_  shampoo!" she said.

"So what?" Scootaloo said. "Winona has a nice, shiny coat, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, but…"

"This is the same shampoo she uses." Scootaloo waved one hoof. "The  _exact_  same shampoo, in fact. Applejack accidentally bought a new bottle when she didn't need to, and Apple Bloom grabbed the old one."

"B-but it's for a dog!" Diamond sputtered.

"It's still mostly the same stuff. I've used it on my mane and tail without problems. It's even better, really. Do you  _want_ fleas and ticks?"

Grumbling, she started lathering up her mane and tail. Afterwards, something occurred to her. "Do I actually need to worry about fleas?"

"Not with that shampoo you don't!" Scootaloo quipped. "The clubhouse is kinda in the open, though, and they could get in. I've done a _few_  things to try and keep them out, though."

She tilted her head curiously, then quickly wiped off some shampoo suds that were on a collision course for her eyes. "Like what?"

"Do you remember the clubhouse kinda smelling like peppermint when you came in?"

The main thing  _that_  reminded her of Twist's peppermint sticks. She shrugged.

"I looked it up. Fleas don't like the smell of peppermint."

_Sure they don't, Scootaloo. When are you ever in a library?_

Diamond rinsed out her mane and tail, unplugged the hole and let the water drain out. She daintily stepped out of the tub. She then grinned, stepped closer to Scootaloo, and started shaking all over, getting as much of the water on her as she could before grabbing another towel and rubbing her fur off.

"Hey!" Scootaloo yelped. "No fair!"

"You did it to me  _twice_ ," she said smugly. "If anything, you still owe me one. But I shall ignore that out of the kindness of my heart."

"You have a heart?" Scootaloo muttered.

Ignoring her, Diamond dried herself off, then wrapped the towel around her mane. She glanced back at the tub and noticed something.

"Um, Scoots?" Diamond asked, somehow feeling a bit closer to her after their banter. "How are we going to get that tub back without, like, getting mud all over the place?"

 

Scootaloo glanced back at her, one eyebrow raised at the use of her nickname. "Well, I guess I'll just rinse it off, then one of us will carry it back on that extra towel I brought along."

A few minutes later, the orange pegasus had the tub rinsed off, and had gotten rid of the mud that got on her in the process.

"I'll tell you what. I'm kinda tired now," she said. "Why don't  _you_  carry it back, Diamond?"

"Do I  _have_ to?" Diamond said automatically.

Scootaloo gave her a look that said she'd better grab the tub  _right now_  or there'd be trouble. She sighed, put the extra towel over her back, and put the tub on top. Scootaloo grabbed the bucket and stuck it in the tub with everything else.

"Come on," Scootaloo said, and the two of them slowly walked back to the clubhouse. When they got to the ramp, she looked at it for a moment dubiously.

"Don't worry, I'll be right on your tail," Scootaloo assured her.

As she proceeded slowly up the ramp, the tub kept wanting to slip in this direction and that one, and every so often, Scootaloo nudged it back into position. Eventually Diamond dropped the tub on the clubhouse floor with a clatter. Scootaloo grabbed it back up, and shoved it back where she'd gotten it from.

"Well, after all that, I'm ready for dinner. Why don't you come to the market with me. If you give me the bits to pay for it,  _I'll_  buy your dinner, and you won't hafta deal with nasty merchants."

Diamond was embarrassed to realise that after those apples, she was  _still_  hungry. She'd missed several meals, and they hadn't really been enough, though they had helped a lot. Well, looked like she was going to need to be even  _more_  dependant on Scootaloo.

It was funny, though. Diamond had always pretty much considered Scootaloo comic relief. The funny flightless pegasus that buzzed around on her scooter, and was always trying to get her cutie mark. A real loser. But Scoots was okay. She vaguely wondered what else she had been wrong about.

"So, I guess we're just waiting for Sweetie Belle, then?" she asked.

Scootaloo raised one eyebrow. "You think the three of us spend all our time outside of school together? We do spend a bunch of time crusading, but not every day."

"So she's probably just having dinner at the Carousel Boutique, then?"

"She's  _at home_  with  _her parents,_ " Scootaloo corrected. "She doesn't always stay with her sister either, you know."

"Oh, right," Diamond said. She wasn't sure she'd even met Sweetie Belle's parents, actually. "Give me a few minutes and we can head over, then. I've done more walking in the last few days then I remember ever doing."

"Well, that'll give us a few minutes to talk about this morning, then," Scootaloo said, crossing her forelegs.

She glanced at Scootaloo. "Actually, I think I'm ready."

"You know, you hafta go to school," Scootaloo said. "Ponies get suspicious if you're out during school hours, and you'll have trouble finding a job later if you don't."

"I  _can't_  go back," Diamond told Scootaloo again. "Everypony hates me. I think they were going to try and break my legs yesterday."

"Look,  _I've_  always had to deal with bullies, but I still go to school every day," Scootaloo frowned and Diamond winced, realising she had been one of them. "It's just part of life."

"I couldn't even call Miss Cheerilee over to get some help, though," Diamond said.

"She isn't  _always_  gonna be there. Of course—that's right, you weren't there today or half of yesterday, so you wouldn't know."

"Know what?" Diamond asked.

"Miss Cheerilee  _saw_  that issue of the Foal Free Press. She gave us a long lecture about good journalism yesterday after lunch, and announced a few staff openings at the paper."

"But she was really upset at me! I heard her yelling the other day!" Diamond protested.

"Maybe so, but she was really upset about this, too," Scootaloo continued. "When she found out how you were chased away from school, she handed out detentions to everypony involved."

"How would she even know what happened?" Diamond said, perplexed.

"Not  _everypony_  hates you. Twist, Silver Spoon, and one or two others told her about it."

_This made no sense._  "So she isn't upset I left?"

Scootaloo scowled. "Well, you might get talked to about yelling at Twist. What didja do that for?"

"I don't know, alright?" Diamond defended herself. "It felt like I was losing Silvy to Twist, and I just lost it."

"That hardly helped ponies' opinions of you, you know."

"Yeah." Diamond sighed. "I figured out afterwards that Twist was, like, trying to be  _nice_  to me, too."

"Anyways,  _try_  to go back to school on Monday? Apple Bloom gets out of the hospital tomorrow, so she'll probably be the center of attention in any case."

"Wait. Apple Bloom's getting out of the hospital  _tomorrow_?"

"And we're having a Cutie Mark Crusader meeting  _here_ , too," Scootaloo stated. "You might want to talk to her first, you know? Getting a wheelchair up that ramp oughta be fun."

Oh Celestia, I'm gonna have to talk to her about all this tomorrow. She's gonna  _kill_ me.

"So, ready for dinner?" Scootaloo asked.

With a lump in her throat, Diamond just nodded and followed Scootaloo out of the clubhouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot that I hadn't gotten this story up to date with the fimfiction copy yet. It's not complete there either, but here's the next chapter, and I'll try to remember to the the other chapters up.
> 
> [b]Old notes:[/b]   
> Well, I'd better get this out before I pick it to death. And, yes, I released another chapter of this, rather than the next chapter of Just Winging It. A fair amount of the original draft of this was written when I was writing the last chapter, in fact, though I've revised a lot since then.
> 
> I did have Luminary preread again. I do not have a proofreader or editor, though, and any mistakes in here are mine.


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